No remorse
by DarknessBloodAngel
Summary: Set from 3x03 - Damon will do whatever it takes to save his brother, even if it means replacing him as Klaus' pet, and ripping the town apart until it rains blood. But what happens when Klaus begins to crawl under his skin and embed himself there? Will Damon be able to shake him, or will the lines between love and hate blur into oblivion?
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N) Hey guys, so after some consideration, and some supportive reviews on all my oneshots so far I've decided to do a full Klamon story. This story picks up from the scene in 3x03 when Damon came back into Stefan's apartment with Elena's dress and she was all whiny about her "practically being discovered by Klaus", but with my own bit at the start of it. :-P.**

**And for any future chapters, it doesn't follow the Vampire Diaries except for this chapter, and I'll probably use dialogue from future episodes in later chapters. I'm not so sure about the rating for this one, but I'm gonna keep it at M for the horror-ish elements in it. **

**Enjoy guys, and please review. I'm one of those pesky authors that only update if there are a certain amount of reviews, because if I don't, nobody actually says anything.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries, if I did it'd be Klaus/Damon (duh) and Elena wouldn't have played with both brothers.**

**Warnings: Light smut in future chapters, scenes of horror and violence which may be frightening to younger readers (dare I say elderly? - LOL), and contains (mild) Elena bashing - I just hate her so much, she's like Katherine 2.0 or something.**

~ooOOoo~

_Vampires will take whatever they want. They will hurt whoever they want. And they'll do it without remorse. It's their nature.. _- Alaric Saltzman.

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"Here you are, Sir." The red-haired cashier handed Damon a sturdy brown paper bag with a smile.

"Thank you." He took it from her, discreetly looking at her name-tag pinned above her left breast. It was always the way to subtly compliment woman without being too forward, since he wasn't looking for a little side-order of blood to go with the dress inside the bag. "Hannah."

She flushed a dark shade of red over her high, pale cheekbones, and twirled a lock of fiery hair around her index finger. Damon flashed her his million dollar smile, winking one of his cerulean blue eyes. He slid the bag from the counter, expertly thrusting his arm through the stout-looking handles before the last corner even left the till. He turned and walked out of the store, feeling all the woman's - and some select men's - eyes on him as he did so.

Damon walked out onto the busy high street, the sound of cars revving and horns blaring in his ears. As he walked down the cobbled pathway, back to Stefan's old apartment from the 1920's, he found himself thinking about how much quieter it was then. Instead of hefty trucks and vans bellowing thick smoke into the air, and the drivers of cars always hitting their horns, trying to compete with each other and make the loudest sound, there used to be the sound of soft jazz being distributed throughout the whole town, with the occasional barely-advanced cars rolling down the street.

Damon suddenly remembered Elena's phone call to him, but he wasn't going to hasten his walking speed, that was for sure. He wasn't at her beck - and quite literally in this situation - call. He was still mad at her about their fight on her birthday, and all-but blackmailing Alaric to hike through the Smoky Mountains with her, which almost ended up with Damon being bitten by Ray, a rabid hybrid, and Elena getting killed.

Jealousy wrenched at the metaphorical knife in Damon's heart as he knew she was doing all this for his baby brother, but if it was _him_, she would probably just yell at him to get back under control, or use her sickening "Damon, _please_" and a bat of her eyelashes to get him to do what she wanted. Even if she didn't realise it, or she was just ignoring it, she was turning to Katherine more and more each day - although he would feverently deny it if anyone said so - she needed Damon to fall back on during "Stefan's darkest periods" but yet she insisted coming out to Chicago to save him.

Turning in his trek down the street, Damon came to the old complex which Stefan's apartment was in. Part of him wondered if he would find Elena torn to shreds, the culprit being none another than his brother, or if he would come across an empty room with a ransom note pinned to the wall. _Alright, easy Damon_. He reasoned with himself, stepping into the complex.

The stairs made loud creaks as he ascended them, no doubt frightening Elena if she was still inside Stefan's apartment. He knew which floorboards creaked and which didn't, but he wasn't going to spare himself the trouble of bypassing them just for Elena. Damon found himself thinking, a lot lately, about how everyone seemingly always wanted to kill themselves to save Elena, but she refused every attempt, just because she was so selfish and wanted everyone by her side at all times. Especially Stefan.

It was beginning to get annoying - Stefan only left because he had saved Caroline and Tyler, and Tyler had bit him. If Damon had left them in the cell, they would both be dead, but Elena would still have an Aunt, and an "epic" love with her boyfriend. It was sickening the way she wanted everything to go her way, Damon knew a reality check was in order.

He pushed open the door to the apartment, having wrenched the knob off earlier, and sauntered inside. He saw Elena's figure half hidden behind the wall. Her hand lowered the vervain dart she had been holding - Damon knew it wouldn't be much use against Klaus now he'd broken the curse - and her eyes, which had been trained fiercely, and almost harshly, on the door, transformed into a watery look of relief.

"Finally I called you an hour ago." Her voice was riddled with urgency and her body came out from behind the wall. She placed the vervain dart over on Stefan's old bed, and walked towards Damon. The look in her eyes and the look that was plastered on her face told him she was looking for comfort. He had none to give to her.

"Make yourself presentable." He tossed the bag with the dress in it, into her arms. She caught it, but now added to the mixed emotions in her eyes, was confusion. "I know where Stefan's gonna be tonight." Damon told her, giving her a little grin.

"I told you that I was practically discovered by Klaus and you're worried about what I'm wearing?" Elena's voice sounded betrayed and hell forbid - whiny, like she wanted Damon to wrap her into his arms or something like that. She was like one of those people that always needed _someone_, but when what she really needed, was to learn independence. Damon had survived on his own for almost a century and a half, not counting the occasional times he and Stefan met in the middle, but it wasn't possible for Elena to do it?

"I had an hour to realise what a bad idea it was to leave you here alone, process it, and move on." Damon said bluntly. He watched her posture change, and she stood taller, looking slightly affronted. He refused to be her surrogate Stefan until he got back, because he was done loving her until she opened her eyes and realised she loved him too, or stopped denying her feelings just because she was worried about Stefan getting hurt.

"Are you okay?" He asked, in a tone that to most people would seem like he didn't care. And he didn't, not right at that moment.

"Yeah." Elena responded breathily, sounding like she was about to cry. Damon almost rolled his eyes at the sight in front of him. He couldn't believe she'd been scared by something for over an hour. Anna's words to her when they were all trapped in the tomb flashed across his mind - "_You scream, and shriek and even bother to escape, but then you just come right back to it._" Damon knew that was true, she barely even tried to rescue herself, just played the damsel in distress until he and Stefan showed up to save her.

"Okay, good." Damon acknowledged. "Get dressed. you're all road-trippy and gross." He motioned to her fraying denim shorts and her top, which was starting to look dirty.

"So you know where he's gonna be?" Damon noticed her voice was notably stronger. _Of course, whenever __**Stefan's **__involved, she always perks up, couldn't give a damn about herself or anyone else for that matter. _He thought viciously.

"Yes, with Klaus." He said like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which it was right at that moment. Wherever Klaus went, Stefan and a trail of mutilated bodies would follow. "So I'll distract Klaus, and you deal with Stefan." Damon told her, leaving no room for discussion.

"Ok." She nodded, her voice back to that breathy tone it had first been. "Thank you." She managed a small smile, which Damon did not reciprocate, instead he stood up, and walked over to Elena, towering over her. His vampire hearing heard her heartbeat increase almost instantly, and then he became angry at the fact she would always fight his feelings because it would always be Stefan, no matter what he did for her.

"But you're gonna have about five minutes tops, before that hybrid freak rips my heart out." Damon knew Klaus would probably be weary about him, but it didn't bother him so much. What _did_ bother him, was that if Stefan and Elena took to long with their relationship drama, he would run out of distractions. "So please, tell me you can do this." He looked desperately into her eyes.

"I can do this." She nodded in a determined voice. Damon motioned over to the bathroom, and she went inside to change into the dress. It was only a purple, simple stretch of fabric, nothing too fancy seeing as she was only trying to convince Stefan to come home and he was sticking his neck on the line, as per usual which he was growing tired of, and distracting Klaus.

"Need any help in there?" Damon called from where he stood in the center living room. He heard her breath hitch from behind the closed door, and he smirked to himself.

"I'm fine." She called back, her voice shaking. Damon knew the effect he had on her, and he was revelling in it. He could make her heart skip or stop all together, make her skin burn hot when he touched her, or ignite the blazing Petrova fire in her when he riled her up. But lately, all that had lost its appeal, he was loving her recklessly, yet she was pretending she didn't know, when the whole town could have figured it out within an hour.

"Are you sure?" He teased her. "It wouldn't be like seeing anything new."

"I'm not Katherine, Damon." Her scathingly fierce reply shot through the door. Damon shook his head, she was completely oblivious as to how she was coming between him and his brother. Damon knew it was bad news that she looked like Katherine, and often wondered if that was why Stefan stayed, practically stalked her for months, and fell in love with her. He heard the quick rustling of clothes, and the crinkle of the paper bag, and quickly shook himself out of his thoughts.

"I'm ready." Elena announced, smoothing out the creases in the dress with her long-fingered hands.

"Alright, let's go." He opened the door and walked out, not giving Elena time to get ahead of him. Her shoes clacked against the wooden floor as she ran after him, creating a resonating echo throughout the entire complex. He smirked to himself again, and made for his trusty blue Camaro.

Damon opened the door to the drivers seat, and Elena rushed past the bonnet of the car, before hurrying in and slamming the door. She buckled her seatbelt up, and Damon turned the key in the ignition. The engine roared to life, and soon they were burning rubber down the high street.

"Seriously Damon!" Elena huffed. "Why did you run off like that?"

"If I recall, you were the one doing the running." Damon responded smoothly, occasionally giving the steering wheel a gentle twist every time they reached a junction. They were headed for Gloria's bar. Damon knew that was where Stefan liked to unleash the Ripper and wreak havoc on the inhabitants inside. It struck Damon as odd that Gloria never did anything, especially with her being an a hundred and sixteen year old witch after all.

Damon came to a silent halt outside Gloria's bar, with _Gloria's_ flashing above them in the same, curly neon letters that had been there in the 1920's. Damon pulled the key from the ignition, switching off the lights, and getting out of the car. Elena followed suit, eagerness was eminent all over her face, and it only drove the knife in deeper. _"I love Stefan, it's always gonna be Stefan." _Her tearful words the night Katherine had rejected him echoed in his mind, and he clenched his fist angrily.

"Stay here, I'll go and get Mr. Ripper." Damon left no room for an objection, and slipped away into the shadows, leaving Elena alone and out in the open. He pushed open the bar's back door, general chatter, witty banter and the sound of music filled his ears.

Damon spotted Stefan over by the bar, talking with Klaus who poured another shot of tequila. Stefan glanced around, and caught Damon's eye, widening his own in realization. He hooded them quickly as Klaus turned towards him. Damon walked back outside into the cool night air, craftily standing near Elena, but made sure Stefan wouldn't be able to see her.

He felt a supernatural force push him back onto his car, pressing him up against the window. Damon thought for an instant that it was Klaus, but he recognised Stefan's mess of light brown hair, even in the darkness. Stefan gave him another shove against the car, and Damon didn't fight back. "What is wrong with you?"

"What is wrong with you!?" Damon shoved him back and broke his grip on his shirt, being older and stronger than his brother, despite the fact he was on human blood. "You kill Andie one day, save my life the next. What are you good, bad? Pick one." His eyebrows danced above his eyes as he spoke, glaring daggers at his brother, and pushing him back.

"Klaus almost saw Elena today." Stefan's voice was riddled with urgency, and his eyes shined with desperation. "You have to get her out of Chicago." He was almost pleading with him. Damon clenched his fist again, like he hadn't tried! But as usual, everyone had to do what _Elena_ wanted, nevermind having free will or the right to save themselves.

"She's not going anywhere until she's got you checked into vampire rehab and on the mend." Damon told him, walking a little closer, almost violating his brother's personal space, although given the number of times they'd pinned each other against the wall said otherwise. "Trust me, I've tried." He whispered in a hushed voice. If Klaus heard their conversation, they'd both be dead.

"She's the key to everything. Klaus can't know she's alive." Stefan said.

"What are you talking about?" Damon asked, making his confusion clear. What was Elena the key to? Besides destroying brotherly bonds without realising it, or just being plain ignorant about it.

"She was supposed to die in the sacrifice and she didn't, now Klaus can't create any new hybrids." Stefan explained, panicking. "His witch is seconds away from figuring it out." He said.

He grabbed Damon by his shirt, and clung to him desperately. "Tell Elena to go home, and forget about me." He ordered.

Damon shook his brother off. "Tell her yourself." He jerked his head towards Elena, who was stood there looking like a deer caught in headlights. Damon braced himself, he was heading into certain danger, and possible death. He pushed open the back door, just as Stefan and Elena began talking, and he strolled into the bar again.

"Last call, drink 'em up." Gloria called around the bar. Damon took no notice of her, and deliberately sat on the bar stool next to Klaus, mocking him almost.

"I see they've opened the doors to the riff-raff now." Klaus said, not looking at him.

"Oh honey, I've been called worse." Damon turned his head and smiled at him. He really hoped nothing major would happen tonight, and Elena would just accept Stefan wasn't going to come back, or if he did, it wasn't going to be all sunshine and roses like she wanted.

"You don't give up, do you?" Klaus finally looked at him, twisting a small cocktail umbrella between his fingers. He looked different than the last time Damon saw him, stubble had spread across his chin, and his eyes looked much more intimidating. Damon thought it was because of the wolf inside him was brewing, waiting to leap out and strike, causing mass devastation.

"Give me my brother back, and you'll never have to see me again." Damon bargained. Klaus gave a small chuckle, and Damon felt his legs go numb. It sounded rich and cultured, but like the lowest notes of a melody at the same time. Klaus was truly an intimidating wonder.

"Well I am torn." He broke Damon from his thoughts, all the while he kept fiddling with that umbrella. It made Damon a little nervous, although he wouldn't admit it. It could be used as a perfect surrogate stake. "You see I promised Stefan I wouldn't let you die, but how many freebies did I really sign up for? And clearly you want to die or else you wouldn't be here, so..." Klaus' voice trailed off, and he gave the tiny umbrella another twist.

"What can I say? I'm a thrill seeker." Damon smirked, his full attention now on the hybrid. Klaus gave a wolfish grin, and Damon barely had time to blink before Klaus' hand was wrapped around his neck in a tight hold, a loud slap being heard from the quickness of the assault. Damon felt Klaus lift him up into the air, and his feet dangled helplessly in the air.

His arm shot out in an instant reflex, wrapping his fingers around Klaus' wrist, but the hybrid's grip didn't falter. Damon had been strangled by Elijah before, but the tightness he felt around his throat now, just couldn't be compared. He was raised higher into the air, with Klaus now stood up from his bar stool. Damon groaned as he felt his spine being stretched to it's limits before several cracks were heard. He gasped in what little air he could, amazing at how nobody in the bar was reacting.

"Oh dear what was that?" He could hear the grin in Klaus' voice. His arm was now completely extended, and Damon thought about kicking him in the stomach, but it wouldn't be a very wise choice. His pointless struggles ceased for a moment as Klaus picked up the cocktail umbrella, and lightly pressed the tip against his chest.

"I'm a little boozy, so you'll forgive me if I miss your heart the first few tries." Klaus whispered to him. Damon chuckled, and he felt a searing sensation in the right side of his chest, nicking one of his arteries. He groaned again, and hung limply in Klaus' grip like a rag doll.

"No that's not it..." Damon breathed out as Klaus pulled the sharpened tip of the umbrella's end from his chest. Not a moment later, it was jammed back in, eliciting another groan from the younger vampire. Damon didn't even think about moving, the tip of the stick was scraping against the side of his heart. "Oh, almost."

"You want a partner in crime?" Damon's voice oozed desperation as Klaus jerked the umbrella towards him. He groaned again, feeling the tip nearly penetrate his heart, and Damon wondered for a split second if this was how he was going to meet his end - by being stabbed with a _cocktail umbrella_. "Forget Stefan, I'm so much more fun."

Klaus grinned at him, before tossing him backwards. Damon felt his body sail through the air, and he smashed into a table, the legs buckling and snapping under the new weight that had been thrown against it. He laid amongst the splinters, ignoring the pain in his chest as he looked around.

Klaus' boots came towards him, and a hand curled tightly around his shoulder, prohibiting any and all movements Damon tried to make. "Really? Then prove it." Klaus challenged him.

"What?" Damon's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Prove to me, that you can be a worse ripper than Stefan, and I might consider taking you with me instead." Klaus explained. Damon thought for a split second, he didn't mind being the bad guy, and he _had_ embraced his vampirism more than Stefan had. He then thought back to 1864, when they were the best of friends, and would die for each other. Damon would still die for his brother, over Elena in a heartbeat, but he would never admit that to anyone.

"Give my brother his life back first." Damon bargained, feeling oddly calm, despite the situation he found himself in. Stabbed with a tiny umbrella, and making a deal with a deadly, indestructible hybrid who could kill him without blinking.

"Why, is that because Elena wants him back?" Klaus asked. Momentary fear seeped into Damon's body, and he felt his eyes widen. Klaus smiled above him, showing a row of white teeth. "Oh come on, you really didn't think I'd be able to hear her, did you? I heard her heartbeat back in Stefan's old apartment, and I can hear it now. Quite literally being ripped into pieces all because of your little brother you both want to save so desperately..."

"Are you gonna give him back, yes or no!?" Damon demanded, writhing and twisting in Klaus' grip.

"Tsk, tsk, patience, little one." Klaus whispered softly, and Damon felt his stomach drop. He didn't know what was going on with him, but it would be a secret he'd keep to himself for all eternity. "You haven't fed on a human in a while, have you?" He asked.

Damon's brows shot up. "What the hell does that have to do with-"

"Just answer, the question Damon." Klaus' tone made no space for a debate about it.

"No, I haven't." Damon admitted. He had found himself more that enough times wanting to revert back to his old ways, but Elena's constant reprimanding about his humanity just wasn't worth it.

"And do you know why that is?" Klaus asked him, and Damon dared to play the oblivious card, knowing the explanation he got would somehow revolve around Elena. "It's because Elena has wrecked you, allowed useless emotions to cloud your mind. Like _love_. But from what I gather, she either doesn't realise, or completely ignores it. She's a lot more like Katerina than she thinks, she's come between you and Stefan just like her."

"What is it about Petrova doppelgängers that we men find so alluring?" Klaus chuckled down at him, unintentionally reminding Damon about how helpless he was.

"Elena is _not like Katherine_." He ground out through gritted teeth.

"She uses you to get what she wants." Klaus pointed out.

"No she doesn't." Damon objected, when he knew full well she did. She had subtly manipulated him to take her here to Chicago, and she had done it again when they were hiking the Smoky Mountains. He didn't even want to _think_ about the time they were getting information on Katherine, and he had given it to her, yet Elena still cast him out of her life, having known the answer the whole time they were at Duke.

"Stop lying Damon, it'll get you nowhere." Klaus reprimanded him, and Damon cursed the fact that werewolves were like living lie-dectors. "Now, about this little deal... I'll give Stefan back to Elena, on the condition that the minute you feel hungry, you'll feed on a human."

"Sounds fair." Damon nodded with a chipper looking smile. "_Not._" It slid off his face in an instant.

"Well, well, it sounds like they're still talking, so we have time for a little game I have planned." Klaus smirked, and Damon felt his stomach tighten into a thousand knots. He knew from seeing Katherine back in Alaric's apartment during all the sacrifice business, what Klaus' idea of fun was.

His back smashed against a wall, and Klaus' hand was pressed tightly against his chest. He grinned at him, and waved one of the broken table legs in front of his eyes. He was about to stab it into his body, and Damon braced himself for the impact, but it stopped short, the tip resting on his shirt.

"Not in my bar Klaus, take it outside." Gloria ordered him.

Klaus chuckled, not looking at her, but burning his ice-gray eyes into Damon's body, discreetly studying him. "Leave this to the men Gloria, and just this once, I think you can handle a little blood spilt, seeing as it would inconvenience me to take this outside."

"You make a mess, you're cleaning it up." Gloria grabbed a few empty glasses, and took them away for cleaning. This time, it was Damon's turn to grin.

"You got told." He laughed. He was stopped as Klaus rammed the stake through his stomach, pinning him to the wall. He picked up two others, undeniably sharper, and shoved them into his wrists. Damon cried out in pain as he felt his veins burst and his bones crack. Klaus strutted into his full view, and Damon was thankful that he didn't have another makeshift stake with him.

"Alright, let's get this started. I'm going to ask you a few questions, and if you don't answer, or I find out you're lying, I'll bite you, and I won't heal you until I get the answer that I want." Klaus explained, and Damon eyed him venomously. Klaus chuckled and ran his hand over Damon's cheek, involuntarily making him shiver. "Oh don't pout like that Damon, this'll be fun."

"Yeah, for you." He shot back.

"Okay, first question, how badly do you miss feeding on humans?" Klaus asked him. Damon hadn't fed on a human in a while, and missed the feeling of his prey's life essence being drained by him and sucked down his throat, giving him life while stripping a human of theirs. He was broken roughly from his thoughts as something slashed his skin open. The open wound began to burn severely, and Damon realised Klaus had just bitten him.

"What the hell!?" He yelled, struggling against his restraints as his whole body began to burn up.

"I told you that's what would happen Damon, now answer me." Klaus ordered him, reminding him that he was the alpha, and held and dealt all the cards. "There's about ten minutes before you start to feel the effects of my bite Damon, and they are much worse than a regular werewolf." He taunted him in a sing-song voice, running his finger down his cheek.

With a jerk of his head, Damon snapped at Klaus' hand, and he pulled it away, chuckling at him. "Ooh, you're a feisty little boy." Damon groaned as he grabbed his neck, squeezing tighter than a vice. "Just answer my question."

"A lot." Damon panted through gritted teeth, trying to put the pain at the back of his mind. It was _far_ more excruciating then when Tyler had bit him. Tyler's bite was like someone had shot him with wooden bullets, but the pain from Klaus' was similar to when he was human and his father smashed a decanter over his head for reasons he couldn't remember. "I miss it a lot."

"Why?" Klaus asked curiously.

"B-because I..." Damon's head dropped down as his neck couldn't take the weight. His heart thudded painfully in his chest, directing Klaus' deadly venom around his body. His limbs were getting numb each time the venom continued its destructive path. Damon coughed and to his horror, blood splattered over the polished tiles below him.

Damon felt Klaus' hands gently lift his face up, and he tried to look at the man in front of him, but his vision was blurring and the room was spinning. "Hmm, unfortunately for you, it looks like my venom's decided to start its work early, you may want to hurry up with that answer sweetheart."

"I'm not myself." Damon's voice was raspy, scratching his throat.

"Yes, I can tell." Klaus brushed a thumb along one of Damon's cheeks. "You've grown soft Damon, and it's all because Elena wants you like this, would I be correct in thinking that?" He asked softly.

"Mmm-hmm." Damon nodded as best he could, forcing his head to stay where Klaus' grip held it.

"Round two then, how is Elena still alive?" Klaus asked. Damon knew Klaus would bite him again if he didn't answer, but the raw, scratching feeling was proving too much for him, not to mention the fact that the whole game was far too sadistic for Damon's liking. It was one of those things that were fun to watch, but when the pain was inflicted on you, you cursed everyone to Hell and back that watched.

"During the- When you- Bonnie did-"

"Focus Damon, you don't have all day." Klaus' voice broke through the haze that was Damon's mind, and he feverishly tried to organize his thoughts.

"Bonnie did a spell and it brought her back, still human." Damon explained quietly, not wanting to aggravate his burning throat. He was never a fan of it, but coughing up blood seemed like a suitable remedy in this situation. His head was pounding against his skull, creating a dull, thudding rhythm between his ears.

"Fascinating." Klaus breathed, running his thumb along Damon's lower lip. "But now I can't create anymore hybrids."

"Yeah, Stefan filled me in." Damon coughed weakly, although to his annoyance, not a single slither or drop of blood came out. "Are we done with the 20 questions now?" He asked hopefully, trying to not give his eagerness away. Klaus would find some way of using it against him, he knew it.

"Just one more." Klaus grinned at him once he saw the annoyance and frustration in his eyes. "Why are you afraid of what Elena thinks about you?" He asked. Damon wouldn't call himself afraid of what Elena thought of him, just _fed up_ of her incessant whining, childish behaviour and her I'm-so-better-than-everyone-else attitude. And he was annoyed about how she constantly toyed with his feelings - probably realising _exactly_ what she was doing - leading him along one step, and then going back four, and the four often led to his brother.

Damon groaned as Klaus' hand wrapped itself tightly into his hair, and yanked his head to the side. A wave of aching pain spread through his entire neck like a plague. He heard Klaus hiss, and Damon froze entirely as the very tips of his fangs rested above the already inflamed bite. All it took was one more push, and Damon would be dead before the game was finished.

"I can almost taste your fear, Damon. It's _intoxicating_..." Klaus breathed heavily against his neck, chuckling in sadistic pleasure, his British accent giving more of an allure to it.

Damon swallowed hard, not wanting to go to the full extent of why he cared about what Elena thought about him and his lifestyle and behaviour, because he would probably be dead before the end of the game, without a second bite. "I love her, but she's in puppies and rainbow land with Stefan, even now while he's fallen off the proverbial wagon."

"She just wants you as another Stefan, she doesn't want _you_, she just wants you falling over your feet for her so you'll do whatever she says." Klaus whispered softly to him, bringing his face back into Damon's eye line. He bit back the gnawing feeling he had that this was true, but he knew it was. At almost every turn, whether it was a blonde or a bloodbag, she was always there with a disappointed or judgemental look on her face that could rival Bonnie's.

"Mmm, I think you've suffered enough." Klaus kissed the bite on Damon's flesh, and he felt himself shiver from head to toe. He gasped out loud as Klaus wrenched the first stake from his stomach, his skin sewing back together once the obstruction had left it and the route his bloodstream took wasn't blocked.

Damon winced as Klaus pulled the stakes from his wrist. He slid down the wall and fell onto his knees, swaying momentarily before falling on his stomach. With the begrudging knowledge that he was too weak to move, Damon peeked out of the corner of his eye, and saw Klaus holding an empty glass.

His hybrid visage appeared, and Damon was intrigued. Klaus had the red and black lacing the whites of his eyes and the thick veins around them, but his irises - which would have stayed gray on a normal vampire - were a brilliant shade of amber, almost rivaling that of the bourbon Damon frequently drank, even more than often due to recent events. He also had _double_ canines, which he sunk into his own hand. Klaus let the blood drip monotonously into the glass, and Damon licked his lips.

A groan slipped past his lips as Damon felt Klaus' free hand push him onto his back. He crouched down beside him, the glass full with his blood. Klaus pulled him into a sitting position, supporting his entire weight with his free hand, and held the rim of the glass to the seam of his lips.

"Drink up." Damon parted his lips enough to allow some of Klaus' enticing blood to snake past them. He began drinking more hungrily, feeling the werewolf venom leave his system. Klaus' blood tasted sweeter than the first time he'd drank it, it was the _real deal_, fresh and warm. If by some ridiculously stupid turn of events, all of Mystic Falls' human population were chock full of vervain, Damon knew he wouldn't mind surviving off of Klaus' blood for the rest of his eternal life.

As he drained the last mouthful, Damon felt Klaus pull him to his feet, gently setting him down on the floor. "I'll return your brother back to Mystic Falls tomorrow."

"Thanks, I think." Damon turned around to go and find Elena, well aware of the fact he had just sold his soul to the Devil.

"Goodbye Damon." He could hear the smirk in the hybrid's voice, but he ignored how strange it made him feel, and pushed open the door to the back entrance. Stefan and Elena were nowhere to be seen, although Damon heard soft, sobbing sounds coming from inside his car.

He opened the driver's door, and looked in to find Elena, teary-eyed and twisting her necklace between her fingers. Damon slid into his seat, and turned the key. The engine purred and the headlights flickered on, illuminating a pathway for them, and expelling every shadow.

Ever since Damon became a vampire, he knew _very well_ that things often did hide in the shadows, whether it be another vampire, a vampire hunter, or a werewolf. He heard Elena choke a sob back, and judging by how loud it sounded, Damon couldn't help but think she had done it simply to get his attention.

"Are you okay?" He asked, feigning and not feigning concern, curling his fingers on the steering wheel. He hated the fact that Elena always got upset when things were told to her like it was, and how she always seemed to cry and play the damsel in distress whenever something happened to her, even though Damon knew it was just an act. She just wanted everyone at her side, at her beck and call.

"Just drive." For once, Damon had no objection of doing what she said. The sooner he got home, the sooner the bodies could start hitting the floor, and the clouds start raining blood.

~ooOOoo~

"What!?" Damon yelled as the relentless pounding on the front door wouldn't stop. He knew he sounded like a cranky old man, but he didn't care. He'd been up all night, went to bed on a blood high - which amazed him because he only had a glass of Klaus' blood - and woke up with a pounding headache. He growled and threw the sheets back, exposing his half-naked body. "Okay I'm coming!"

He angrily picked up a shirt from the floor, not caring if he'd worn it before, and thrust his arms through the arm holes, yanking the head hole over his hair. Unable to take the banging on the door _any_ longer, he took off with a burst of supernatural speed, and pulled the door open, ready to chew the person out for disturbing him.

But who he saw, wasn't just any old teenager, it was an a hundred and sixty-two year old vampire pretending to be a teenager. "Stefan..." Damon breathed in relief. Now he could take a break from Elena's incessant detective work, and get down to business - ripping half the town apart.

"Hello Damon." Stefan smiled morosely, and Damon nearly rolled his eyes. He was free from Klaus, why was he not happier? Then Damon guessed that he was probably feeling remorse for the victims that he killed, and he was buried under an avalanche of guilt. "Can I come in?" He asked.

"It's your house too, isn't it?" Damon smiled before stepping aside, allowing his brother to cross over the threshold.

"Look, Damon I-I'm sorry about, everything." Stefan apologised, and Damon knew he meant it, he could practically see his eyes swimming with guilt, threatening to drown him at any moment. That was Stefan's biggest problem, he hated himself because he stripped people's lives from them. He had always been compassionate as a human, and as a vampire that was magnified. Remorse was his eternal curse.

"It's alright, people die. Move on." Damon brushed him off.

"How's Elena?" He asked. Damon almost hit the wall. Why did everything in Mystic Falls seemingly revolve back around to Elena? Aside from being the Doppelganger, and the object of Stefan's feelings, and the former to Damon's own - he'd given up any chance that Elena would choose him, she was just too judgemental over his lifestyle and behaviour - she really wasn't that special.

"Probably sobbing into her pillow and drowning her sorrows in a big bix of Chunky Monkey." Damon really couldn't care less right now about what Elena was doing. She was probably still reprimanding Jeremy for smoking some pot on the night of her birthday. Jeremy had a right to do what he wanted, regardless of whether or not it was a good choice, but he had a right. But taking people's choices away from them were all Elena seemed to be good at, besides screaming, yelling, crying and slapping Damon whenever he did something "wrong".

"Care for a drink?" He asked, Stefan declined with a shake of his head. Damon walked over to the liquor cart, and selected the crystal decanter filled with his favourite drink - Bourbon. He unscrewed the top, and began pouring the liquid into his usual tumbler. He corked the decanter once he was done. Out of the corner of his eye, Damon saw Stefan pacing around the room.

"I really messed things up, do you think she'll forgive me?" He asked nervously, his brow furrowed into a line which, Damon thought, could rival the lead from the really bad vampire movie where they all sparkled.

"I think as soon as she gets here wanting to cook chili for the Founder's thing that's going on, she'll be running into your arms and you'll go off into rainbow land where everything's good and there are no big bad hybrids bringing the neighbourhood down." Damon was well aware he sounded bitter, but he didn't care. The first step to causing mass destruction - stop caring. He sipped on his drink.

"Are you alright, Damon? You seem a bit... agitated." Stefan voiced concern.

"I'm fine." Damon nearly snapped, draining the rest of his glass. His ears pricked up at the gentle sound of an engine purring lazily into the driveway. He looked out the window, and he saw Elena get out of the car with two green bags full of ingredients for the chili. Damon couldn't remember why he'd agreed to help her, so he pinned it down to the blood-high.

"Girlfriend's here." He said to Stefan as the front door opened. _Please do come in Elena, and don't __**knock **__while you're at it._ Damon thought. She didn't own this place, not anymore.

"Damon!?" She called, her voice echoing in the foyer.

"In here!" He responded.

Her footsteps got closer and closer to the living room. Soon she was stood in the doorway, her eyes were red and puffy, and she had dark circles under them. "So I've got the chili recipe for the Founder's-" She stopped once she saw his brother. "Stefan? What are you doing here?" She asked cautiously, her eyes showing hurt, confusion and a hint of happiness.

"Klaus let me go, Elena." Stefan told her, walking towards her. _Yes, based on the deal that I made_. Damon corrected him in his head, although Stefan didn't know that. Nobody knew that, it was between him and Klaus.

"I'm so sorry, I never meant a word of that, I was just trying to protect you. I'm sorry." Damon looked at his brother, and saw he and Elena wrapped in each others arms. He felt instantly angry again, Elena was willing to overlook _Stefan's _murders, but whenever Damon did anything, he never lived it down.

"It's okay Stefan, everything's going to be okay..." Elena hushed him, softly stroking his hair. Damon frowned in annoyance and anger.

Turning away from the cringe-worthy display of affection going on in front of him, he looked out of the window, and to his surprise, he saw Klaus stood near a bank, watching and observing. Even from the distance that was between them, Damon could see the smirk that was on Klaus' face as he watched him. Damon looked past him, admiring the town which spanned out for miles in front of the boarding house.

He was the artist, the town was his canvas, and he was ready to paint it with blood.

~ooOOoo~

**(A/N) Ok guys, how was that? Good? Terrible? Delete the story and never think of it again? Lemme know what you think, and I'm gonna need alotta feedback for this one guys. **

**I'm actually pretty buzzing, so if you guys like this story, I'll love writing it, because I love dark Damon. I hate how he is now he's fallen in love with Elena (Season 1 badass Damon all the way) why couldn't it have been Klaus? :( That way they could have had murder sprees and killed Elena! XD.**

**Review with your thoughts guys, and stay tuned for the next chapters.**


	2. Chapter 2

**(A/N) Hey hey guys! Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter, but let's try and get **_**more**_** than fifteen for this one, please? Now I know I'm not good enough to be one of those Authors who get like 300+ reviews on a story, but I can try, right? Someone say right, I think I'm going insane. :-P**

**But seriously, I do need alotta reviews, I need them like Damon **_**needs**_** to hook up with Klaus on the show, and rip Elena to shreds. XD ****- That's a devilish smile.**

**So, you know the drill, review with your likes, what I could improve on, etc, and also, I'll be starting each chapter off with a quote, so let me know how I've done on that, and the whole story. Please, I **_**need**_** to know if what I write is good.**

**Last thing, I want to thank an anonymous guest reviewer, Bromance Forever and Zest-of-love (you were really sweet, thanks so much, I don't normally think I'm that good a writer) for their lengthy reviews. Not that I didn't love reading **_**all**_** the reviews I got, I just prefer longer ones.**

**And also, thank you to Haru Maru Salvatore, who has been a constant reviewer to all my Klamon fics. You rock!**

**Oh, and to anyone wondering where my usual one-shot are, I've decided not to post any until this story is done. But don't worry, I'll get back to posting them when this story is over.**

**Right, this chapter is a bit long (about 10,800 words) so I'm really, really hoping it won't bore you, because every single detail is crucial, and needed to be in there.**

**So, I'm gonna stop rambling, and you're gonna start reading. Capische? :-P**

**Warnings: Contains scenes of mild horror (I think so anyway) Elena bashing (if that's not your cup of tea, I won't be offended if you stop reading) and light smut scenes.**

~ooOOoo~

_If you're gonna be bad, be bad with purpose; otherwise, you're just not worth forgiving._ - Damon Salvatore.

.

.

Under the burning amber rays of the morning sun shining through the large window of the Salvatore boarding house and filling the parlour with a dim orange glow, Damon made his way over to his liquor cart, haste eminent in his body. He had been back in Mystic Falls for a few days now, and he still hadn't killed anyone. Klaus was right, he was going soft.

Sighing in annoyance, Damon picked up the crystal decanter which housed his favourite drink - bourbon. He poured himself a large glass, and downed it in record time. Since when had killing people became so taboo with him? His grip tightened on the glass as his subconsciousness seeped through, and Elena's name stuck out in his mind.

_She_ was the root cause in his humanity getting through, but she was also the root cause of everything that happened in Mystic Falls, intentionally, or un-intentionally. Klaus still might have came for her, even if she wasn't aware of Mystic Falls' darkest secrets and supernatural inhabitants, but there wouldn't be nowhere _near _as many deaths if she hadn't fallen in love with his brother.

Her Aunt Jenna - her last living guardian - was dead because she couldn't bear to lose a best friend, and not to mention John was dead because she didn't want to become a vampire. Caroline had been turned because she was needed for Klaus' ritual, although that wasn't directly Elena's fault, but it led back to her and his brother falling in love. Everything did. But Damon knew their relationship was started on a rocky ground, with Stefan's lies, and his dubious intentions to get Katherine out from the tomb, only to find out she wasn't in there.

Damon's ears pricked up over the sound of him pouring himself another glass of bourbon, and Elena and Stefan's yawns registered with him. He heard shuffling, and the creasing of the bed sheets as they turned around to face each other. Damon quickly swallowed the contents of his glass, trying his hardest not to let rage take over his body, rage for something he should _not_ be thinking about right now.

It was pure _torture_, always being able to hear Stefan and Elena waking up to each other, _making love_, or doing whatever else they did when Elena wasn't being kidnapped and waiting for her two knights - Damon was as guilty as charged - to come and save her, or when Stefan wasn't off on a ripper tear. Damon knew the torture would only increase when he started feeding from humans, but if he did what Klaus asked, and became a worse ripper than Stefan, he wouldn't be around to endure it for much longer.

He listened in to Stefan and Elena's conversation, deciding it was best that they saw him before he slipped off to kill some innocent townspeople, and rolled his eyes at the sounds of plump, fleshy cells being pressed together and bed sheets sticking to sweaty bodies. _Not for much longer Damon_. He reasoned with himself, hearing his tumbler splinter as his fist enclosed around it, tighter than it had been previously.

Finally, the nauseating sounds - not that Damon wasn't guilty of it himself with any woman he was lucky enough to seduce - stopped, and silence filled the air momentarily before Elena's voice shattered it.

"So why did Klaus send you back here?"

"I don't know, but I'm glad he did." He could practically hear the smile in Stefan's voice, and Damon found himself wondering if servitude with Klaus was really as horrible as Stefan was making it out to be, but then again, whenever he wasn't on human blood, he always had to get drunk to be able to have fun without giving himself any frown lines. "Maybe he found someone else to be his little slave for eternity." Damon almost chuckled at his little brother's hopeful voice, he had no idea whatsoever that Damon was the one Klaus was now focusing on.

"Is everything okay with you?" Elena's hopeful voice broke him out of his thoughts, and Damon listened intently again. He almost snorted, she was pinning everything on the fact that a _vampire_ would be okay without drinking human blood. Stefan really had built a delusional wagon for himself to ride on, and Damon couldn't help - but he didn't care - but think that, that was what his relationship with Elena had been built on: Lies and false hope. "The cravings?"

"I should be alright, I'll just need to take larger amounts of animal blood than I normally would to replace the human blood." Stefan answered her. Damon couldn't really have an opinion on it, because he wasn't sure if it would actually work, or if Stefan would become the vampire equivalent to an alcoholic because he was trying to stay off of human blood for Elena.

_Why is everything for Elena!?_ Damon screamed mentally, his fist finally shattering his tumbler into pieces. Flecks of crystal rained to the ground, and what little of his bourbon that had been left, splashed onto the carpet. It seemed to be the eternal question in his mind, and he couldn't help but think of how many other people's either.

Lately, everything in Mystic Falls - that concerned the usual suspects, himself, Stefan, Alaric, Caroline, Bonnie and sometimes Jeremy - either revolved around Elena, or was done to save her. And Damon hated it, hated it more than the fact Elena had brought his humanity back. Not that he would have it for much longer, he didn't want it anymore, it was over-used, over-rated, and not to mention downright _annoying_ as it sometimes got in the way of his plans.

Like during the sacrifice, he had saved Tyler and Caroline because he was concerned about how poor little Elena would feel because she'd lost people she'd known since birth. Her attachment to everyone would be the death of her, or everyone elses. Damon had noticed that almost _every_ time a plan was formulated that involved certain death or collateral damage, Elena opened her big mouth and everything suddenly changed.

It was getting beyond a joke.

"I never gave up on you Stefan." Elena's voice derailed his speeding train of thoughts. Didn't Damon know it, everyone knew it. She had stopped _eating_, stopped _sleeping_, and she had chased up every lead possible - the ones that Damon didn't hide from her - to find him. On a brotherly level, Damon had missed Stefan too, but he had faced reality, or as Elena called it, giving up, a hell of a lot quicker than she did.

"I know, and I don't think I can thank you enough." Stefan said to her, and by the sound of it, he kissed her forehead.

"You can try." Elena's voice gained a seductive allure to it and the shuffling sounds began and moans sounded throughout the house. Damon frowned, and somehow found himself thinking of Katherine back in 1864. His mind then strayed to how Elena had always tried so hard not to be her, yet she fell into all the traps, and ended up making history repeat itself _again_. Damon had grown tired of it, and it had all started because she looked like Katherine.

Damon stepped over the shards that was once his tumbler, and made his way towards the stairs. He would stake all the money he'd ever owned, and his prized Camaro - and he _loved_ that Camaro - on the fact that Stefan was thinking about Katherine while he was in bed with Elena. Damon wouldn't be at all surprised, since she was the sole reason he stalked Elena in the first place, testing her to make sure she was nothing like her. But she was, and Damon had no idea how Stefan could be so blind.

The sounds of muffled moans and laughter could be heard over the rustling of bed sheets, and Damon poked his head around his brother's room, and found him on top of Elena, sheets draped over his body while he was tenderly kissing her. Damon frowned. Stefan was too soft for his own good, but that was probably why Elena liked him, he was a pushover, easy to persuade and extremely easy to guilt into something.

The nauseating display's of affection continued without any knowledge that Damon was stood in the door way. He smirked, wiggling his eyebrows. "Don't swallow each other!" He called to them.

They stopped immediately, and Stefan kept his eyes on Elena - Damon was guessing her cleavage - while Elena looked like a deer caught in headlights. An _angry_ deer caught in headlights. "Damon!" She scolded, not even bothering to cover herself up. It was things like that, that made Damon angry, she was with his brother, and was shoving it in his face and down his throat that she was Stefan's and not his.

_It's always gonna be Stefan_. His mind reminded him bitterly. Damon shook his head, at least he would be with Klaus soon. Even though Damon wasn't that sure about the Brit's feelings towards him, he knew there was something, otherwise Klaus wouldn't have taken Damon up on his offer to replace Stefan as his Ripper-Partner-In-Crime.

"What?" Damon leant casually against the door frame, and folded his arms. Stefan finally looked up at him, and Damon had no idea why he was so embarrassed, it wasn't like they hadn't seen each other naked before when they were children. "I still drink human stuff, and I don't need to hear you guys from downstairs." He continued, well aware he sounded like the grouchy old man from down the road who would confiscate children's footballs if they landed in his yard.

"Ooh Stefan that feels _so good_. Ooh Stefan I'm ticklish there..." Damon made a comical impression of Elena, and the countless things she'd heard her scream when she was in bed with Stefan. Oddly, it had never been _just_ his name. "I swear it's just same old, same old with you guys. Break the rhythm, live a little, shatter the bed. Something adventurous!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Damon saw something flying for his head. He caught it in mid-air, single-handed, and with his eyes still on Stefan.

"You're a worse shot than I thought, brother." He commented. He opened a fist to see what had been thrown at him, and chuckled. "And really, silk boxers? Are you sure you got the gender preference thing right?" Damon teased him, knowing full well he had a few pairs himself, not that he ever worn them.

"Just get out of here." Stefan tried to be stern, but was chuckling. It was moments like that, that Damon and Stefan could actually get along. They had been few and far between since Elena came along. The reasons _were_ a little more deep-seated, but Elena was the main component as of late, and she was the one thing they couldn't resolve.

"Alright Mr. Silk Boxers." Damon chuckled back, choosing to ignore Elena's on-coming frown on _both_ - although he knew she would only lecture him - brothers juvenile teasing. "I was going out for a bit, and thought I'd tell you if you thought something terrible happened to your dearest brother."

"Alright, see you later." Stefan smiled at him.

"Later." Damon made his way down the hall, but poked his head back around the door. "Oh and Stefan, remember what's in the top drawer."

He snickered as Stefan's face went red, and Elena's eyes began brimming with curiosity. It was safe for Damon to say, that what was in Stefan's top drawer could benefit them both. He carried on down the hallway, through the parlour and out the front door. He stood in the driveway where his blue Camaro was parked.

He opened the driver's door, and slid inside, pulling the door shut behind him. Damon pulled the seatbelt across his body, and buckled it in. He rested for a moment, tapping his hands on the steering wheel. Possible kill-sites were revolving around his head right now, and he felt himself growing more and more excited. Today was the day he would break free of Elena's leash, today was the day he would no longer allow his humanity to judge his decisions...

... Today was the day, the perfect day, to _kill_.

Damon turned the key in the ignition, and the engine roared proudly to life. He pressed his foot down on the acceleration pedal, and sped off towards the Grill. Usually, it was largely populated with unsuspecting teens and barmen barely scraping minimum wage, so Damon decided there and then that he would slaughter everyone inside. He smirked. This brought a whole different meaning to the phrase: _The more the merrier._

He rolled into the car park, and twisted his key out of the ignition, muting the monotonous purr the engine had been making. Damon slowly inhaled the air, and he was almost driven into a frenzy - there was so many different types of blood inside that one building, that he didn't know where to begin. He was getting too excited, but he knew he couldn't get too carried away, and run the risk of leaving behind any signature trademarks that Stefan would recognise him by.

Damon walked into the grill, almost laughing at the unsuspecting number - and quite a large one - of the Mystic Falls' population. Sitting down at his usual bar stool to avoid looking suspicious, he scanned the people around him. There was a lovely selection for him, and they were his for the taking, just like they always had been. Damon was almost salivating at the sight of all the beautiful girls with their low-cut tops, leaving their necks vulnerable and exposed to him...

It had been _far_ too long.

"Can I get you anything, Sir?" A bartender's voice broke Damon out of his daze, and he turned around towards him. For a bartender, his blood smelled pretty good. Good enough to be the starting point in the deadly game Damon was about to initiate.

"Yes." He smiled, turning completely in his seat. As the bartender reached beside him to pick up an empty glass, Damon snapped his hand around the boy's wrist, locking eyes with him. "You can stand still, and don't scream." He paused momentarily to hiss and reveal his fangs, but the bartender yelled and tried to back away from him. Then the reason flickered into Damon's brain.

"Oh that's right, you're staff so you're on vervain, silly me." He chuckled, tightening his grip on the bartender's wrist, feeling the bones bend to the point of breaking being the only other possible thing to happen unless he let go. "Not that it has an effect on me, anyway." With little to no effort, Damon tossed the bartender into the air, over the counter-top, where he landed on the floor with a thud. Several people turned to look at what was going on.

Damon ignored them all, knowing he was fast enough to capture anyone who tried to run away from him, and sunk his fangs into the bulging artery in the bartender's throat. His ear-splitting yells of pain fell on deaf ears, and Damon continued to drink, holding him down with firm hands as he squirmed underneath him.

Oh how he had missed this... The feeling of euphoria that came with the liquid fear he had instilled in his victims. The bartender gave another gasp of pain, and Damon bit down even harder, his fangs teeth and the power of his bite severing his main artery and crushing his windpipe to pieces.

He was no more.

Damon darted his tongue out to scrape up the last of the rich, life-giving essence, rearing his head up from the dead bartender's neck, and a sadistic grin tugged at his bloody lips, exposing red-smeared daggers. Damon could taste the _fear_ he had, had before he killed him, he could taste the rapture of the kill, the adrenaline which kicked in during the feed. But it wasn't a regular feed anymore, a means to keep himself alive and change Klaus' mind in his choices of Salvatore servitude.

It was the re-awakening of the long-lost killer of Mystic Falls. And he was back with a vengeance.

"So, who's next?"

~ooOOoo~

Damon moaned in contentment, sucking the last customer - a beautiful Asian women with olive skin - dry. He pulled her wrist from his mouth, casually wiping his bloody mouth with the dead woman's appendage. The last hour had been complete and utter _heaven_. Pure bliss. The feeling of the slick blood streaming down his throat was _mesmerizing_, and much better than any of his feeds in all of his years alive as a vampire.

He stood up, staggering as if he was on a drug-high, and surveyed the Grill around him. Corpses were strewn about the floor, some were hanging upside-down in the booths, and the rest were over the other side of the bar. The intoxicating smell of blood lingered in the air, on his tongue. It was the very essence of his soul now, fresh and warm like it always should have been.

A car pulled up outside the Grill, and Damon made himself scarce with the help of his vampire speed. He would have killed him, but how else would Klaus come to know of his first epidemic if nobody reported it to the Sheriff? News from the town travelled fast, exceptionally fast. Damon hoped it would be enough to convince Klaus he was worse, but a darker part of him knew it wouldn't be enough, and he was glad. He liked killing, _much_ more than he had remembered.

He reached the car park, and climbed into his Camaro, observing from the sidelines as the man got out of his car, and strolled towards the Grill. Damon could tell by the way he'd stopped, he knew he wasn't going to get that bacon and egg sandwich today. He yelled in horror, and Damon snickered quietly. The man pulled out his phone, and frantically dialled for the Sheriff. Damon started the ignition, and roared out of the car park.

He got home in record time, and silently slipped into the house, shutting the front door carefully, and avoiding the creaky floorboard as he made it into the parlour. Just as he heard Stefan's bedroom door open, Damon began pouring himself a drink to look natural, not like he had just gotten back from a murder-spree.

"Damon, how could you do this?" Stefan stormed into the parlour with Elena thankfully both were dressed, in tow. Damon ignored her accusing death-glare - which could have easily been put to shame by anyone - and leaned against the liquor cart. He knew _exactly_ what they were there for, they had obviously found out about his first murder-spree. Damon couldn't bring himself to care, if he played the Devil's Advocate and wove a web of lies faster than a spider, he would throw them completely off his trail.

"Do what dear brother?" He played dumb, folding his arms with a light smirk on his lips. "If it's rob a blood bank, it's very easy, I go in, compel the guard and help myself, and the-"

"We mean _this_, Damon!" Elena yelled, cutting him off furiously. She strode over to the cabinet, and grabbed the TV remote from the side, angrily switching the "on" button. The news flickered on, and the reporter who was Andie's substitute was speaking.

_"Several bodies were found at the Mystic Grill today, all with large bite marks in their necks, and some on the wrists, and even thighs. Several are unrecognisable due to the seriousness of their injuries and the amount of blood on them. Until the culprit is caught, I __**implore**__ you all to stay inside, as nobody is safe anymore. Witnesses report seeing a man in his twenties nearby, police have questioned him, and can safely conclude he was not involved with any of the murders."_ She was cut short as Elena pressed the "off" button turning around and giving him a judgemental look. _Boy, news travels __**fast**__. _Damon thought.

"Oh sure, every time someone gets ripped up, everybody blames Damon." Damon would have loved to tell her where she could shove it, but since he was still playing Devil's Advocate, it would have to wait until later. "Well, I didn't do it. I swear." He held his palms up in a defensive manner.

"Well Stefan wouldn't..." Elena's voice trailed off with uncertainty and doubt as she looked at Stefan. Damon discreetly gave him a once over, and took in his expression: morose, with a side of frown lines. He couldn't pin it on Stefan at all, even if he wanted to. His frown lines were always a huge give away when it came to human blood.

"I didn't Elena, I promise." Stefan told her, and Damon almost rolled his eyes. It was truly annoying about how Stefan couldn't handle Elena being mad at him. Damon _could_ handle it, and he'd used to be hindered by it, but now he didn't care at all. He was done being her watered down, piece on the side. Somebody she could manipulate and take for granted while she was repeatedly choosing his brother over her.

"I believe you-"

"Yet you had no problem accusing me." Damon cut Elena off. "I'm hurt, really hurt." He masked his anger with humor, and Elena's eyes narrowed into slits. Damon was infuriated about how two-faced she was, she would act one way with Stefan, and another with himself. The summer when Stefan was gone, for example, had Elena frantically searching for him, and yet whenever _Damon_ killed someone, she couldn't handle it and kept trying to force his humanity back into him.

Well he didn't need it, and he _didn't want it_.

"Will you take this seriously!" Elena screeched at him, the piercing yell echoing around the parlour. "_Matt_ and _Jeremy _work at the Grill, it could have been _them_!" She continued. Damon wouldn't cross that line, he didn't know why. It wasn't for Elena, and it wasn't for himself. But it wasn't like he'd miss Matt, and Jeremy's ring would bring him back to rat him out.

"But it wasn't." Damon countered.

"But it _might have been_!" She yelled again, choosing to dwell on the negative side of things, as usual.

"Elena, has anyone ever told you to _calm the hell down_!" Damon yelled back. Her eyes took on a look of shock and indignation, and her entire posture reeked with defense. She hadn't been expecting Damon to yell at her like that, that much was certain. "All we need to do, is wait it out and see if the vampire has a revenge motive against any of us, or if it's just a vampire looking for his own personal Gas'n'Sip." He reasoned, although he knew it would be none of the above, and he would have to be extremely careful. Damon also knew, that he couldn't tell anyone the reason - although it was a perfectly legitimate one - because he was surrounded by a bunch of judgemental idiots who's lived _constantly_ revolved around Elena.

"And let _innocent_ people die in the process, Damon." Elena's patronizing voice - Damon suddenly wondered what Stefan would do if he slapped her - brought him back down to Earth with a thud. "People's mothers, fathers, _children_!" She said.

"Elena everyone, is a member of someone's family." Damon wasn't at all surprised to hear his exasperated voice. Elena knew that people died, and in some extremely dangerous situations, she wanted everyone saved. Damon was done doing that for her too, he'd leave that to his doting, besotted little brother. "We'll just have to wait it out."

"But what about Matt or Jeremy?" Elena asked worriedly.

"Tell them to stay the hell away from the Grill." Damon said, well aware he sounded cold and distant. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Stefan edging his way out of the danger zone. Damon couldn't blame him, the tension building between him and Elena was getting so thick, that if Damon was human he'd be suffocating.

"And where are you going Steffy?" He smirked, turning to his younger brother. "Off to kill some humans?" Damon knew it wouldn't be wise trying to set his own brother up, but he couldn't resist it. For far too long he had been lax in his promise of an "eternity of misery" that he had made over a hundred and forty-five years ago.

"_Animals_." Stefan corrected him with a glance at Elena, who nodded approvingly. Damon rolled his eyes, since when did a _vampire_ have to take orders from a human girl? And one who was so naïve to her own actions and their consequences at that. "I promise."

"Be safe, don't let the big bad chipmunks catch you!" Damon called, waving him merrily out the door. As soon as it slammed shut, he was left alone with Elena. He felt the dynamic shift between them, only Damon couldn't put his finger on what it was. Maybe it was the human blood intensifying his anger to the point where he felt he would rip Elena's head off if she made one wrong move.

"Damon?" As usual, she reverted to the soft approach with him. Well it wasn't going to work, not this time. He was _done_ being played. He wasn't something to pick up and drop when it suited someone, he was a living - as living as a vampire could get - person with feelings, and all too often were they used for selfish reasons or to get what somebody wanted. Namely Elena Gilbert.

"Hmm?" Damon looked at her, pretending nothing was wrong. To her and everyone else, it _would_ look like nothing was wrong, and even more so as people never got close enough - albeit he never let them - and always skimmed the surface of the icy lake that was Damon Salvatore.

"I didn't want to say this in front of him, but I really do think it's Stefan." Elena was now so close to him, people could mistake them for lovers, which had been the case a few times, most notably, his jealous brother. "I mean, there's no way he could get off human blood that fast, especially-"

"If it was Stefan, the bodies would be ripped apart, and he'd be extremely chipper, all his frown lines would be gone for a few hours, and then he'd go back to wallowing in self-loathing, hating his true nature and trying to quit cold turkey but falling more miserably than you'll be if you try and track down this vampire." Damon cut her off, he couldn't explain it, but he just wasn't in the mood to stomach one of her morality police tirades.

"I still think we should lock him up." Elena told him softly. Damon ignored her and went to his liquor cart and poured himself a drink. With Elena around, he didn't think the entire alcohol in Mystic Falls would keep him from snapping at her. She always made a stupid remark about something she thought she was an expert at, but really she had no clue. The number one prime example - another vampire's blood lust.

"Elena, it _isn't _Stefan." Damon told her forcefully, hoping she would get the message. "How could it have been? He was with you the whole time, probably half-heartedly rocking your world up there." He had to make her see sense, before she went blindly accusing Stefan and sparked a witch-hunt. They had come close with uncovering the fact that it was Damon, but luckily Elena had, had the Stefan-theory bubbling away for a while.

"But who else could it be?" Elena asked, suddenly getting an extremely worried look on her face. "Unless it was Klaus, then we-"

"Klaus is still in Chicago, Elena. I had the cracked neck to prove it." Damon cut her off once more, sipping his bourbon. He could see Elena was getting irritated with him doing that, but he didn't want to listen to her lectures about the blood lust that she had yet to experience. But Damon wouldn't hesitate to make it soon if she touched a nerve. "But let me just tell you something, it's a vampire's nature to feed. We don't fight it because we need to survive."

Elena suddenly looked desperate for a moment, as she tried to find something to counter his _very_ valid, and correct, point. "But animal blood-"

"Does nothing productive." Damon told her, fighting the urge to make his tone sound exasperated. She always had an answer for everything. "Stefan was much weaker than me when I first came here, and he will be until he stops feeding on the woodland's population."

"He can't control himself though, Damon. I've seen him in his darkest periods." It was things like this, that were an insult to Stefan. Elena hadn't seem him in his _darkest_ periods, but Damon had. Although admittedly, he had been the one to send him over the proverbial edge and shove him rudely off the wagon of control, but Stefan did need to learn _control_.

"You've seen _nothing_, Elena." He told her with venom under-laying his voice. "You haven't seen how he rips bodies apart, but I have. You haven't seen what he's like when he's pushed over the edge. But we have nothing to worry about, because the bodies weren't ripped apart."

There was an uneasy silence in the room, and Damon awkwardly sipped on his bourbon, before Elena was the one to break it. "Did he always do that? Rip people apart?" Damon rolled his eyes, she constantly contradicted herself. Back when they were tracking Stefan, she kept insisting she could handle seeing Stefan in Ripper mode, but when they got to his old apartment and Damon showed her Stefan's wall of victims, she couldn't believe her eyes.

"Mm-hm." Damon nodded. "It's not him Elena, I can promise you that." He opened his mouth to say more, but his phone rang loudly throughout the parlour. "Hold on, one sec."

He pressed the green button and held the receiver to his ear, not bothering to check the caller I.D since the list of people who would call him, or actually _want_ to talk to him on the phone, was very short. "Hello?

"Damon, it's Liz." The Sheriff's voice floated into his ear, and there was a distinctive air of worry in her voice. "Carol called an emergency Council meeting for the recent "animal attacks"." She told him.

"Okay, I'll be right over." Damon hung up the phone with a smile. He finally had an excuse to leave, and he wouldn't be suspected as the killer - although he really was - again. And if Elena or Stefan didn't believe his alibi, they could take it up with Liz. "Gotta go, Council meeting." He said to Elena, putting his half-finished bourbon glass on the side. He began walking towards the door, when Elena put her hands on his chest, halting him.

"You can't go, we need to figure out who the vampire is so we can kill him." She told him. Damon had, had _enough_ of all her destroy-the-darkness-reign-in-the-light behaviour. It was getting suffocating and not to mention more irritating than the Twilight Saga corrupting the minds of teens everywhere.

"How naïve can you get, Elena!" The yell flew from his lips before he could stop it or have time to process it. Elena's eyes widened in shock and she reeled backwards, yanking her hands from Damon's chest like he was on fire. _Awww, what's the matter? Upset I'm speaking the truth? _His mind taunted her. "Vampires _kill to survive_, just get over it and stop trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel, because there might not be any one day."

"Damon..."

"No, you should get it into your head. Not all vampires hate what they are, and will fight it like my brother." Damon said sharply, feeling like a blade slicing into someone's skin as it made a precise cut. And that's what Damon felt his point about vampires was like - precise. "Certainly not me, and certainly not the one who's behind the attack." He told Elena.

"But it _is_ possible, you just have to want it bad enough!" She yelled back, determined to pull _everyone_ from the darkness inside themselves. That completely and utterly snapped something inside of Damon, more than any of her past mannerisms - the subtle manipulation, taking his love for granted and using it for her own gain, forcing him to be the "better man" - had ever done in all the time that he'd known her.

Nobody, especially a _human girl_ who had little to no knowledge of the supernatural species, would get away with telling Damon Salvatore that the basic instinct of what he was should be fought.

_Nobody._

"It's not that simple Elena!" Damon snarled at her, unintentionally forcing his vampire visage through. He was glad his anger was getting the best of him, it would make it easier to say what was on his mind and not have to think about the consequences. "It's _harder_ than you think! Take Stefan for example, or _me_ before I came here. The only reason I stopped is because I let my humanity get in the way. Because of _you_." He hissed acidly.

He saw Elena's hand slicing through the air, directing at its pathway towards his cheek, but Damon caught it before it was even an inch away from his face. He didn't even listen to the pained gasp of Elena, grabbed her elbow with his other hand, and twisted her arm behind her back, ramming her against the wall opposite them. She grunted in pain, but Damon was past the point of caring. If he was just a little more far-gone, then he knew he would be ripping her to shreds.

"_What, did I say about slapping me_!" He growled, enraged, into her ear, punctuating each word with a sharp twist of her wrist. She cried out in pain and tried to swipe at him with her other hand, but it didn't work. Elena brought her converse shoe down on his foot, but it had no effect, and Damon's vampire hearing picked up the twinge of the tiny bones in her foot.

Damon was completely vexed - he didn't even think there was a word to describe what he felt - about the fact that Elena thought she could just slap him every time he made her angry or said something she didn't like. He was _not_ one of her puppets anymore, Damon decided he would leave the pathetic and doting role to Stefan. Elena's whimpers registered in Damon's mind, and he chuckled evilly.

"Damon this isn't you!" Elena cried. _There she goes again, trying to tell me, that I'm not __**me**__. Pathetic, __**weak**__, stupid girl. But I'll show her soon, I'll show everyone soon, exactly the monster I really am. _Damon's thoughts were getting the better of him, but he wasn't going to stop them. In his head, it was free reign over what was said, and best of all, Elena wasn't in there bothering him.

"This is exactly me, Elena." His tone was much calmer, which meant he was much more dangerous. "Get used to it."

"What the hell's going on here?" Stefan's shocked voice cut through the silence his chilling remark had formed. Damon released Elena, and she ran straight into Stefan's arms. _Talk about dependent, she's worse than Bella Swan_. Damon thought. Alright, maybe she wasn't _as_ bad, but it was a close second.

"Nothing." Damon walked towards his brother, and Elena twisted her head so she could send him her best death-glare, although with the tears - like salty raindrops leaving silver tracks - running down her face, it was ruined. "I've got a Council meeting, so you just keep chasing your tails trying to find a vampire who is trying to _survive_." He whispered the last word with a meaningful glance at Elena, and continued on out of the parlour.

~ooOOoo~

"Damon, I'm glad you could make it." Liz smiled at him as he walked into the usual room in the Lockwood's apartment. Damon smiled back, feeling a lot calmer. Rides in his Camaro always calmed him down. He had no idea why, he thought it was something to do with the fact he could push it to its limits and he wouldn't feel the effects if he crashed.

"Liz, let's cut to the chase, you think it was me, don't you?" Damon looked at the two females in the room, and suddenly realised it wasn't a Council meeting, just a private talk between the two of them. Liz was the only one on the council who knew about his "lifestyle" so he guessed she must have told Carol, otherwise she would have probably shot at him with a vervain dart by now.

"No, actually, I don't." Liz admitted with a shake of her head, and Damon fought the urge to smirk. "But Stefan has crossed our minds a few times. Especially since his latest massacre wave through the Eastern Seaford."

"It wasn't him." If there was ever a time for Damon to tell the truth, it was now. _He_ was supposed to take the heat for his massacre, not Stefan. If Liz and Carol whispered about it behind closed doors and word somehow got to Klaus, all his work - however enjoyable - would have been for nothing.

"How can you be sure?" Liz asked. Damon noticed Carol was very quiet, and was likely calculating how long it would take him to tear them both apart.

"Because I'm gonna tell you the same thing I told Ric when we were tailing him and Klaus." Damon looked around at both women. There's a reason they call him "The Ripper", he feeds so hard he blacks out, but then when he's done, he feels remorse and puts the bodies back together."

"P-Put's them _back together_?" Carol stuttered with disbelief written all over her face.

"No idea why, probably one of his twisted ways to make himself believe he didn't kill them." Damon shrugged. His brother was a complete mystery to him, why would he bother killing someone if he was just going to be eaten alive by the remorse and try to delude himself into believing he had only fed, not killed.

"A Ripper who feels remorse." Carol mused, deep in thought.

"Exactly." Damon nodded. "Right now, he's with Elena and they're trying to find out who the vampire is." He couldn't help but laugh at the whole _Killer Instinct_ theme to it all. They were trying to get inside the mind of a vampire who was in the process of throwing himself off the rails, but they didn't know that said vampire was right under their noses.

"And you're positive it's not him?" Carol asked.

"Yes Carol, I'd stake myself if it was." Damon said. "Okay, maybe not, but I'd do something unexpected. Maybe date a man for a few weeks..." He turned to Liz. "Is your ex doing anything tonight?" He winked at her. She smiled, and Damon liked to think she was a real friend to him. She knew of his "habits" but didn't do anything to change them or him. Unlike a certain _someone_.

"Okay Damon." Liz chuckled. "You can go. And you're welcome to show up at the memorial for the victims."

"Thanks, let's just hope it's the last." Damon put on a sympathised look, and turned around to leave. As his hand curled around the doorknob, the sympathy slid off his face, and his lips twitched into a devious smirk.

_Are they all just oblivious? Or really dumb? _Damon thought devilishly, turning the door handle and walking out. He strolled through the Lockwood's mansion, taking note of how it wasn't much different from its 1864 predecesing building. Although Damon knew it wouldn't be as ornate and lavished as it was, if it wasn't for all the expensive and rare possessions the tomb vampires had.

The ride back to the boarding house was quick and short, due to there being little traffic, and Damon's newly rising anger. He didn't know what he was angry at this time, but he knew it was something. Right now, he could put Tyler Lockwood to shame, and _that _was saying something.

Damon walked up the stairs, heading to his room, where he was ready for a nice, hot bubble bath. He passed Stefan's room, and the door was ajar. He couldn't resist peeking in to see if he was writing about the "agonizing torment" of his Ripper tear, or about the recent attack at the Grill. Damon loved being able to stir things up without causing any real suspicions about him. He didn't see Stefan at his desk though, he saw Stefan in front of the long, floor-length mirror, fixing the tie.

"Hey Steffy, what've you got all dressed up for?" Damon asked.

"The memorial." Stefan said, eyes locking into his in the mirror. "If a psycho vampire is out there, Elena's going to need protection." Damon rolled his eyes. _Protect Elena this, protect Elena that. Sheesh, doesn't this guy have anything better to do?_ His thoughts were getting meaner and much more spiteful, but Damon was never one for caring about trivial things, that was Stefan's forte.

"Elena? She knew someone who died?" Damon asked.

"No, but that's not the point." Stefan turned around to face him. "She cares if someone dies."

"Maybe a little too much." Damon's tone was blunt this time. "It's not her problem, the weight of the world does not rest entirely on her shoulders." Compassion never usually bothered Damon, although he never fully understood it, or how Elena could have the masses that she did, and never stopped using, no matter how tough things became. The Sacrifice was an over-used, but prime, example.

"Are you going or not?" Stefan's voice broke him out of his reverie. Damon was about to shake his head "no", but then he thought about how many people there were going to be. There had been probably more than thirty people at the Grill, so there would be even _more_ at the memorial service. He would only have to kill _one_, and display it to start the hysteria again.

"I'll drive." Damon said, reaching inside his pocket and drawing out his car keys, jingling them as he forced his face into a smile. He hated pretending much more than he let on. Once Stefan was finished adjusting his tie, Damon ushered him out of his room, down the stairs and through the front door. Elena was there.

"Damon?" She had a shocked look on her face, but there was anger in her eyes. In Damon's own defense, it was self-defence. As per usual, she had hit him - or tried to - whenever nothing went her way, or she heard something she didn't like. She was starting to show for the huge baby she was. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, I live here. Honestly Elena..." Damon smirked at her and she scowled at him. He raised his hands in a defensive position. "I'm driving." He stated, jerking his head towards the Camaro. "Do you really want to drive Stefan's rustbucket?"

"Hey, it's a classic." Stefan deflected lightly.

"Yeah, a classic rustbucket." Damon chuckled. "Get in." The three of them walked towards Damon's Camaro, with him occupying the driver's seat, and Stefan and Elena took the back seats. Elena had sat in the middle and was cuddling up to Stefan. Damon's knuckles went white while he gripped the steering wheel. Wasn't it bad enough that Stefan had gotten the girl yet again, and now _Elena_ was flaunting her choice in his face.

Damon gritted his teeth, and turned the ignition, reversing out of the drive-way and onto the main road. The car rolled down the road, and Damon flicked on the radio to break the awkward silence. One of his favourite songs by _Smashing Pumpkins_ now blared throughout the car.

"You two lovebirds alright back there?" Damon called over the seat, dialling the music down a little so he could hear them. "Wallowing in self-pity and feeling sad for people you didn't even know because they died?"

"You don't have to be snarky about it." From the rear-view mirror, Damon saw Elena lift her head and growl at him. "They were innocent people, just like those people you killed before officially announcing your return to Mystic Falls." She was patronising him, and Damon hated it. Nobody would understand that he was doing it for Stefan, Elena least of all. It was better to keep a lid on it.

"Okay, in my defense, I was trying to frame Stefan, and _announce_ my return to Mystic Falls, and I couldn't very well do it with a parade, now could I?" Damon chuckled. He spotted the Mystic Falls cemetery, and saw the vigil that Carol and Liz had set up inside the bars of the large iron gates. "Here we are." He parked the car, and switched the ignition off, climbing out without giving Stefan and Elena so much as a backward glance.

He walked into the cemetery, refusing a candle from the girl who was giving them out, and went to stand near where the podium was. Like before with Stefan and Elena, he would have to make sure either Carol or Liz saw him before he went anywhere. Damon had never liked funerals much, not since he attended the one his Father had for his Mother. Giuseppe had made it seem more like a party, and Damon was disgusted, and had chosen to leave early with Stefan so they could pay their respects in private.

"Thank you all for coming." Carol's voice was magnified into the microphone, and the general layer of chatter hushed immediately. "Those who were related or had a connection of some sort, you have my sincerest condolences, and to those who have come to honour the dead or support friends, you have my thanks."

All was silent as the people around him - Elena and Stefan included - dipped their heads towards their candles. _Time to make a scene._ Damon grinned, rushing off in a blur of supernatural speed. He came to a stop behind the small stage, and saw a worker who was tangling himself into some cables. Cables which held the lights. Damon eyed a metal rod propped up against a tree, and an idea came to mind.

"What are you back here, Sir?" The worker asked as he saw him.

"Just shut up, and don't scream." Damon compelled him, and luckily the man fell silent. He tore his fangs into his neck, and tried to make the feeding process as quiet as possible so he didn't alert anyone. After a moment or two, the man fell down. Dead.

Damon walked over to the cables, and pulled up the mess that the worker had made of them, harshly slashing his nails across them. As they severed clean in half, sparks rained down to the ground from the dimmed lights, and people were screaming and murmuring in fear or confusion. Before anyone could come around the back and investigate, Damon picked up the metal pole, and, holding the man's body up against a large tree, rammed it straight through, pinning him to the tree.

Another blur of air was the finishing touches. The curtain behind Carol came away, and Damon was back in his original spot by the time it fluttered to the ground. Oh how delicious the screams were, how _pathetic _they looked grabbing onto their loved ones. Carol was trying, but failing miserably, to keep order, and Elena was burying her head into Stefan's shoulder.

"Get her out of here." Damon mouthed over to his brother, and he nodded. Damon tossed Stefan the car keys, and caught them in a closed palm. He briefly consoled Elena before taking her out of the graveyard.

"Damon!" He turned to the source of the yell, to find Liz inspecting the body while her Deputies began escorting or leading people out. The escorts were for the extremely distressed.

"Think it was by the same person?" Damon asked in a false worried voice.

Liz took her torch away from the man's bloody gash. "Wound radius and jaw pattern looks the same, and we can determine he was only held up by the pole for display. We _can _run this one as another animal attack, although we don't know how many more this town is going to believe. We might have to try other possibilities." She told him. "Maybe an occult ritual or something?"

"Maybe." Damon smiled at her. "Well I'm gonna go home, make sure Stefan wasn't thrown into ripper-dom by all the blood." He turned away from her and walked towards the gates, only he turned left instead of right. He wasn't going home, he was going to go to the place where he had claimed as his "thinking spot" when he was a little boy.

It was nothing special, a large log surrounded by pine trees, but Damon was still drawn to it after one hundred and forty-five years. He went up to the nearest pine tree, and snapped two burly looking branches off them. He sat down by the log and began to strike them together. It was a lengthy, tedious process, but it paid off, as a warm fire was now crackling. He broke off the smaller, thinner branches from the log, and tossed them in.

"What are you doing here?" Damon asked as he un-intentionally inhaled Klaus' unique scent from behind him. He turned towards the hybrid, his eyes flashing a haunting color in the flames of the roaring fire. "Figured you'd still be trying to sire yourself a hybrid army."

"Just watching my new potential companion." Klaus stated, coming towards him. But instead of standing next to him, he sat down on the log, patting a spot next to him. Damon dropped the large stick he'd been stoking the fire with, and hesitantly sat down next to the hybrid, feeling some sort of unknown heat radiating off his body. "Now, why is it always the younger vampires who make such a mess?"

Gently with one of his hands, Klaus held onto Damon's head, bringing the other one near his chin. Klaus swiped his thumb across Damon's chin, catching the bloody trail that was there. Something hot streaked down Damon's back, and he shuddered, Klaus smiled, seemingly pleased and Damon blinked in confusion. "What are you doing?"

"Just giving you a few pointers." Klaus smiled at him, looking at him with some sort of satisfaction before he slid his thumb into his mouth, and licked off the blood that had been on Damon's chin. "Enjoy the hunt Damon, let them scream. It's mesmerizing, the euphoria of your prey being consumed by its own fear as you drain the life out of them."

"You are very good at poetry, anyone ever told you that?" Damon smirked at him, trying to ignore how tempting Klaus looked as he was illuminated by the embers of the fire. He shouldn't be thinking about him like that, but he was, and he wasn't doing anything to stop it.

His blood already tasted delicious, and Damon wondered what other traits he had. He slyly looked at Klaus' hands, and then thought about how they pinned him down and rendered him helpless. Damon had hated it, but there was a secret part of him that craved the fight, the fact he was having to gasp for air, the fact that he wasn't the one in control.

"Try it next time you feed, Damon." Klaus shifted his body so he could face him without having to turn his head. "No remorse, no conscience, and no worrying about what Elena will think." He said. Damon clenched his fist inside his pocket. He was completely and utterly _done_ with that girl, she was the bane of his existence. He suddenly remembered when Stefan had said that history wouldn't repeat itself where Elena was concerned, but it already was, and Stefan was so blinded by his feelings for her, that he forgot to notice.

"I'm past that. She's getting on my nerves lately, she thinks all vampires should fight their natures like Stefan, and that the blood lust is "easy to control, you just have to want it bad enough"." Damon quoted her in a poor imitation of her voice. "Did I mention she was getting on my nerves?" He said quickly and in exasperation.

"Soon, it'll be worth it. If, that is, you can prove that you're worse than Stefan." Klaus reminded him, and Damon reinstated it in his mind that leaving with Klaus and leaving a judgemental Elena behind, would be the pot at the end of the very long rainbow, he would just have to bide his time, and become more ruthless with his killing.

Damon's head darted up at the sound of leaves rustling and twigs snapping. "Here's your chance." Klaus told him. Damon strained his ears, picking up the sound of a heartbeat. The fact whether it was male or female, was confirmed as a blonde ranger walked into view of them.

"Are you guys alright out here?" She asked, shining the ray of light her torch created towards them.

"We're fine love, no need to worry." Klaus told her, and Damon smirked. _They_ were fine, she wasn't. Damon was suddenly grateful for all the fresh human blood he had drank today, as he could smell the ranger's blood, and he found the rare scent of a virgin. Virgins had the best blood - it came in close second to Klaus' - in his opinion, because they were clean, and all their pent-up desires and dirty thoughts spiced it up.

"Klaus don't lie to the woman." Damon reprimanded him, standing up. He began walking towards the girl. "Actually, there's _every_ need to worry." She didn't realize she was in the presence of two of the world's deadliest creatures, or that she was headed into a certain death. Damon walked extremely close to her, and her body immediately assumed a defensive stance.

"Sir?" She asked gently. "Are you okay?"

"I will be." Damon responded, smirking. He summoned his fangs from the secret spot in his gums, and felt his veins crawl along his face, pushing against his skin. His eyes burned as the whites turned to midnight black. The woman's eyes widened and she shrieked in fear. Damon snarled, wrapping his hands around her neck in an effort to drag her towards him, but she kneed him in the stomach and his grip loosened slightly, allowing her enough time to run into the depths of the forest.

Damon wasted absolutely no time, and rushed after her, hearing the undergrowth rustle as the air was disrupted around him from his speed. He felt like he was going noticeably faster, and he praised the things that fresh human blood could do for him. Damon decided to take another turn back into his old ways, and leapt up into the tree, gaining pace over the girl.

He watched through the darkness, his eyesight being sharper than usual, and scanned the forest floor for the girl. He found her, panting rapidly and hunched over as she clutched at her side. Damon inhaled the air, and her undeniable fear made the scent in his nostrils much sweeter, and made the hunt much more exhilarating. It was addictive like a drug, sensing his prey's fear of something that they thought at first was a figment of their imagination, a distortion of reality and making their hearts race.

Finally, she came to stand under the branch that Damon was perched on, and he dropped down towards her, pinning her between her to the forest floor. He gave a feral growl before tearing into her skin, making her screams echo all around the forest. Birds flapped away anxiously, and the undergrowth creeped with discomfort.

"That's more like it." He heard Klaus' comment over the adrenaline pumping through his body, before a low hiss reached Damon's ears, and Klaus sunk his fangs into the other side of the girl's neck. Damon had _never_ been one for sharing his kill like this, unless he was drunk, but since Klaus was older and stronger, Damon didn't have a say on this one.

The girl's neck fell away from both pairs of fangs as the hands holding her body dropped her. There was an empty space between Damon and Klaus now, and Klaus didn't hesitate to fill it. Damon was wary, but not wary enough to try and take Klaus on. He seemed more... relaxed than usual. Damon froze as Klaus' hand brushed away a stray tendril of his raven hair, and his eyes roamed his body with a hungry look.

Klaus' lips were getting closer and closer to Damon's and his brain was screaming at him to push Klaus away or at least _back_ away, but Damon couldn't hear anything over the rapid drumming of his heart that he swore Klaus could hear. The blond male's hand pressed itself gently around his waist, and the contact between them made Damon succumb completely in mind, and in that moment he knew his actions were all his own, and not something Klaus was forcing upon him.

Holding the back of Damon's neck with a pressure too hard to be tender, but too light to be bruising, Klaus' lips finally smothered Damon's in a carnal kiss, igniting every single fire in his body, every nerve in it responding to Klaus' presence.

Pressing both his palms against Damon's chest, Klaus rammed him into a nearby tree, and his hands flew up to fist Damon's mass of hair between his fingers. Damon rested his own on Klaus' chest, and felt Klaus guiding his tongue to flick over his lips. Damon felt them, and his entire body, tremble before he opened his mouth to Klaus and the pinked muscle continued its exploration of his mouth.

"This is wrong." Damon moaned in bliss, feeling a foreign heat spread through him. "So wrong..."

"So stop me." Klaus dared him, his face still extremely close.

"Mmm, no." Unable to resist the temptations that came by looking at Klaus' lips, Damon gently pressed his own to them, and Klaus returned the action with such a tender passion, Damon was stunned to the point where his brain shut down, and he let his hands do the talking, sliding one up his chest and wrapping one around the back of Klaus' neck.

It didn't strike Damon odd that he was kissing a man, because it wasn't a unusal subject for him, but what _did_ strike him as odd, was the fact that it was Klaus. But he wasn't going to stop until Klaus made the decision to break away from him. His lips just tasted too damn desirable.

That contact broke sooner than Damon would have liked, and he scowled. Klaus smiled at him, and cupped the side of his face with one hand, and with his other, started tracing the outline of his lips.

"When?" Damon asked suddenly, out of the blue, breaking the serenity between them. He was becoming desperate, not just for Klaus to kiss him again, but he _had_ to get out of this town soon, or he would start going insane.

"Soon, Damon, soon." Klaus whispered against his bloody lips, kissing them gently. "I promise."

And Damon knew Klaus _always_ kept his promises.

~ooOOoo~

**(A/N) Alright, how was **_**that**_** for a second chapter? I know, a bit long (bitch please, it was extremely long - on the wordpad document anyway), but be honest, and lemme know how I did, and remember what I said at the beginning of the chapter about the quotes. Also, lemme know how I did with the "horror" scenes, that'd be nice, oh and the little Klamon exchange at the end. :-) **

**Man I had fun writing that thing... Oh, and the bit where Damon hurt Elena for slapping him. What I wouldn't give for him to have done that.**

**Oh well, a girl can dream. See you soon. **


	3. Chapter 3

**(A/N) Thanks for the reviews last chapter guys! If only my other stories could be like that *sigh*. I'm sorry I took so long to update, but I have a valid excuse - I'm trying to finish a book I've been writing - and maybe the other three, might see if the first one gets picked up first - so I can try and spend some time getting it published etc. **

**Alright, just a few mentions, and then the chapter can begin. I'll just basically be replying to some reviews, or answering questions if there was any, and it'll be the same for all the chapters. :)**

_**Vampiregirl004**_** - I don't even know what was in Stefan's drawer (lol) it was just something I put it, but we can assume he and Elena used whatever it was, and since he can procreate, we can rule out protection. ;-)**

_**Tenssi**_** - Oh he hasn't even **_**started**_** yet, believe me, and there's always the issue of Klaus in this chapter... You'll (all) see what I mean.**

**Bromance forever - Couldn't agree with you more about Elena, and yes, Stefan will find out why Damon is doing what he's doing, but you'll (all) have to stay tuned for that.**

** - Hmm, you beat me to it. It's not exactly a blood connection, yet, but it's a special type of connection. I wouldn't say it's like Master/Servant, because it isn't, and I'm not sure whether it border lines it, but the end of the chapter might let people decide.**

**Haru Maru Salvatore - Did I really leave a cold shower ending? Wow, I wasn't even trying. :P Thanks for reviewing as always.**

**Bocamere - Thanks for telling me that! I wouldn't have asked for honesty if I couldn't take it. I'll try not to make everything that's anti-Elena repetitive, and I think you'll like the Klaus/Damon bit at the end. ;-)**

**Marion - Thanks for reviewing, even though it was in French, I got the gist of it. :P**

**Alright, that's done, let's get this party started.**

**Warnings (Again!? - Yes, **_**again**_**): Contains horror scenes, light smut, Anti-Elena stuff, etc, etc.**

**I hope you all enjoy this chapter, and review.**

~ooOOoo~

_There's nothing human left in Damon. No good, no kindness. No love. Only a monster Who must be stopped_. - Stefan Salvatore.

.

.

Damon's entire body thrummed with a feeling of incredible power and warmth. His eyes opened slowly, and the sun was burning into them. He rolled over, and realised he was on grass. He sat up and to his surprise, he was still in the forest. Laying all around him were bodies, a lot of bodies. All different shapes, sizes, heights, weights and ethnicities, but Damon noticed that they all had one thing in common.

Their throats were ripped out.

Twigs snapped and tires squealed, Damon shot up like a rocket, and to his annoyance, he wasn't alone. He jumped up the tree behind him, nestling far into the branches at the top. He growled as he saw Liz and her Deputies walking on the ground below him. They gasped in shock at the bodies littering the ground, and the trails of blood running from them.

He couldn't be caught here, he would have to kill Liz and her deputies. That would create an uproar in the Council, and Mystic Falls itself. While Damon never really cared much for uproars, causing one this time would just be careless and stupid.

One of the deputies looked up at the tree, but before his eyes settled on Damon, he was gone in a rustle of tawny leaves. He landed a safe distance away from their trained eyes, and sped towards the boarding house.

When he got there, he crossed the foyer and heard talking, followed by rustling. He peeked his head through the doorway, and Elena, Stefan, Bonnie, Caroline and Alaric were crowded around the dining room table.

"Guys, what's going on?" Damon walked fully into the parlour. He shot a quick glance at the gap between Stefan and Caroline and he saw a map with circles on it. Damon was fighting the increasing urge to scowl, Elena could be pretty damn persistent when she wanted to be. He admired, and hated, that about her.

"There were more victims Damon, same pattern." Bonnie leant away from the table and Damon wondered what she was doing there for a split second, before remembering that she was anti-vampires. She made exceptions for Stefan, Caroline and himself, which Damon couldn't - scratch that, didn't want - to understand. He was just glad she was laying off on the vampire headaches. If she had given him one more, he would have torn her heart out from her chest.

"So he or she is hungry, big deal." Damon shrugged, walking up to them. He now had a full view of the map and it's markings and thought about killing further away from his previous locations - which he now noticed formed a perfect triangle.- to throw them off their trail. He wondered what would happen if they found him out. Stefan might understand, Bonnie would probably be trying to set him on fire, Elena would be yelling at him, and Caroline would just stand idly by listening to music.

"How can you be so laid back about this?" Bonnie asked, peering at him with her judgy little eyes.

"Because it doesn't bother me, Bonnie." Damon said bluntly. "And it probably never will bother me. But I am curious as to why _Stefan_, is helping. Trying to cover up any extra-curricular activities, brother? Or what about Caroline?" He eyed the blonde vampire, and he watched Elena and Alaric's eyes flicker to her, and then Stefan. He smirked to himself at creating a ripple between their "perfect" plan.

"He was with me all night last night Damon." Elena said. "Where were _you_?" She folded her arms.

"At the Grill." Damon lied. "And don't try and pin this on me." He warned everyone lowly. He now knew he had to be more discreet with when he disappeared. Waking up in the forest last night had been too close a call. He'd almost got discovered by Liz's deputies.

"And I was with Tyler, there was a full moon last night, so..." Caroline's voice trailed off, and Damon became annoyed. He couldn't frame anyone, fool anyone or plant a seed of doubt in anyone's mind about Stefan or Caroline. Damon was well aware he was probably looking shady by now, so some major re-cooperating was in order.

"Sorry buddy." Alaric apologised. "It's just it's happening too often to be a feeding, don't you agree?" He asked.

"No." Damon frowned mentally at the thought of his hunts being called a "feeding", it was more like a Deal with the Devil. It was all for his brother, yet no-one would understand him. But was it really all for Stefan? Damon couldn't work out why he was so anxious for Klaus to hurry with his decision, or what feelings - if Damon had any - he had for said hybrid.

"Well, Sherlock, Watson, Scooby-Doo, Barbie, Sabrina, I'll leave you all to your sleuthing which will no doubt prove... useless." He was surrounded by the biggest bunch of self-righteous idiots he'd ever met in his entire life, and he was beginning to get a migraine. He turned around and headed for the doorway, when Elena's voice stopped him.

"You don't know that, Damon."

"Yes, I do." He replied without looking at her. He passed through the doorway, and crossed the foyer and walked up the stairs. His vampire hearing picked up the sound of chatter resuming, but also one pair of footsteps following him.

Damon pushed the door to his bedroom shut, but when it didn't click, he turned and saw Elena walking inside. He waited for the tirade to happen. They were getting boring, he had repeatedly drilled things, _vital_ things inside her head, yet they had leaked out within hours. He looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to spark off.

"What is with you, Damon? All of a sudden Stefan's back and you're acting like... like..." Her voice trailed off and her face screwed up as she tried to think of an epithet to curse him out with. Damon guessed she wouldn't try her luck at slapping him again, not after yesterday. He had been lenient though, he should have broken her arm.

"Like _what_, Elena?" He asked her, a little impatiently.

"A jerk!" She yelled, her hands balled into fists by her sides.

"I'm just trying to save you from getting killed." Damon pointed out tiredly. "Because some vampires don't take very kindly to being bossed around by eighteen-year old girls who think they know everything about something they are actually _clueless_, about." His voice began rising and he got frustrated at himself.

He shouldn't be getting so wound up over Elena, but talking to her was like smashing his head against a brick wall. She was so set in her beliefs about everyone having good sides, that it would probably take a world-changing force to smash her out of the fake sense of reality she had built around her. It was a worrying sign.

"I know enough, Damon." She sighed like she was sick of all of it, like she wanted to forget all the previous animosity between them, but Damon wouldn't forget and he would never forgive. She had annoyed him one to many times, and crushed his heart enough times for him to realise that she wasn't the person for him. He didn't want to be unhappy every time his brother got the girl and he didn't care about his older brother's feelings, only "precious Elena's".

"You know _nothing_." Damon almost growled at her. Getting angry with her seemed to drive more deeper into her skull than a softer approach and that wasn't his fault. "I've said this so many times now it's like a bad song I can't get out of my head: _Vampires feed and kill to survive_. And I bet Stefan, in his eternal quest to be as close to a human being as possible, has slipped up and killed a deer or two." He said.

"But that's different." Elena said resolutely. Damon could have punched a wall. _Killing_ was exactly the same no matter what died at the hands of another, whether it be a blonde - or a brunette who looked like Elena - a fox or even a worm! It was all the same. Killing was still killing, regardless.

"It's exactly the same, Elena." Damon was clenching his fist beside him, luckily Elena couldn't see it. "Some vampires kill humans, some kill animals, and some go around feeding on each other and end up having threesomes somewhere in a dark alley."

"How do you know that?" Elena asked curiously.

"I dated this guy once, and we-"

"Did you say _guy_?" Elena's entire demeanour suddenly changed and Damon would have laughed at the way her eyebrows crinkled and her mouth curved upwards in a slight grin. "But you aren't gay, are you?"

"It's just a human name for it, besides, he was _hot_. Like Malcolm Travis hot, actually looked like him too, brown hair, green eyes... _smoldering_." Damon looked off into the distance for a split second, before bringing himself back to the conversation. "Anyway, we were feeding on each other, seeing as some of our recent activities had caused a mess for us, and we ended up having more sex than usual." He smirked at that, and then his mind suddenly flickered to him and Klaus, covered in blood and kissing each other fiercely... _Damon_! He yelled at himself.

"What, activities?" Elena asked hesitantly with a swallow, and Damon _knew_ she wasn't going to like the words that came out of his mouth if she actually went to enough of Alaric's history lessons, or paid attention in any of Mr. Tanners'.

"Jack the Ripper."

Her eyes widened to the size of saucers, before they narrowed into slits. "How could you do that!?"

Damon rolled his eyes. "I was hungry, and I'm not up for re-hashing the past right now." He brushed her off.

"You were _hungry_!?" She yelled. "You killed _innocent_ people just because you were hungry!?" Damon almost scoffed, that was back in the 1800's, when he was still trying to control his blood lust - Elias had been a big help though, since he was older and had more experience - yet Elena still reprimanded him for it.

"Yes! Because that's what vampires do!" Damon threw his hands up in the air, and then decided to take a calmer approach with her. "We're like cars, when we're empty, we need fuel - Blood. Plain and simple. You are so delusional it's not even funny." Calmer didn't mean civil. Damon walked past her, leaving her alone in his bedroom. He needed to blow off some steam.

He made a fast-paced walk to his car and slammed the door shut once he was inside, hearing a the iron bend. He didn't want to think about anything that concerned Elena for the next few hours, so he sped off down the road in a roaring fury of rubber. Damon didn't care if he crashed his car and ended up making the headlines as "the Zombie man of Mystic Falls", he just needed to get to the Grill. Fast. There were plenty of opportunities to wreak havoc, plenty of women to trap in his web like helpless flies...

All four tires squealed loudly as he parked quickly in the car park. Damon was surprised the place was still running, especially after the severity of his skirmish when he was there last. He walked inside, and everything was squeaky-clean. It all looked the same, except for the shiny new security camera revolving above the door.

Damon cursed under his breath, he would now have to smash the security camera to the point of data not being collectable if he was going to commit mass genocide again, but that alone would delay him. There wasn't even a possible way to make it look like an accident. Silently grumbling about the evolution of modern technology, he sat down on a bar stool and ordered a bourbon.

It slid across the desk and Damon downed it in a single gulp. Giggles sounded in his ears, and he discreetly turned. There were a gang of girls sat around a table, all eyeing him. The one in the middle, a lovely blonde with a nice tan, was a bright-red in the face. Whether it was because Damon had looked at her, or her friends had made a dirty joke to her, he didn't care. She seemed naïve enough to trust him.

Damon slid from his bar stool and walked towards the girls. Their giggles hushed almost immediately and Damon was smirking at the fact his looks alone had such power over a woman. Vampirism gave him much more, and left him open to opportunity, and a very beautiful girl up to subjection. Whether she liked it or not.

"Excuse me?" Damon asked the woman politely, luring her into his trap. Her green eyes flickered up to his, and she bit her lip nervously. Her two friends, one on either side of her, were nudging her under the table.

"Yes?" Her heart rate was out of control. She seemed sweet and innocent, so Damon went into a frenzy just thinking about tasting her blood. She was a perfect outlet for his frustrations, since she bore no physical resemblance to the woman in question who had riled him up.

"I know we don't know each other, but I saw you staring at me from over there, and who would I be if I tortured you like that?" Damon said silkily, and the blonde girl blushed a deeper red, looking down at her half-eaten burger.

"It's alright Ann, we'll meet you later." One of her friends said. They both walked off and left her at the table. Damon heard them snickering and gushing. "_God_ he's hot!" One moaned in desire, and Damon smirked again.

"Ann, what a pretty name." He complimented her, occupying one of the empty chairs beside her. "Pretty name for a pretty girl."

"Oh stop." She chuckled. "What's yours?" She asked.

"Damon." He replied, taking a pickle slice from the inside of her burger, and popped it into his mouth. He swallowed. "Do you want to come back to mine for a little while?" He asked. If she didn't agree, he was going to compel her anyway. He wasn't bound to any trivial human practices of being polite.

Ann grinned, and Damon could tell that no compulsion was necessary. "Lead the way."

~ooOOoo~

Ann collapsed onto the sheets as Damon rolled them both over, completely boneless. He felt completely and utterly unsatisfied, although Ann was far from it. The only thing that had gotten him through it, was the fact that she was a close blood source, and the fact that he had unintentionally let a few thoughts about Klaus into his mind. It was bizarre, but somehow picturing Klaus in his mind had stoked his spirit up like a raging fire.

"Mmm, that was _amazing_." Ann moaned, curling up to him. Damon frowned at the sweaty body pressed up against his. His sick subconsciousness imagined Klaus in her place, and he felt a grin tug at his mouth. When did he get such twisted thoughts pertaining to a certain hybrid? He didn't care though, he didn't mind that he was thinking about Klaus' hands roaming his sweating skin, or his lips crushing into his and making his chest burn with the need for air.

"Yes, yes it was." Damon turned towards Ann, and locked their gazes together. "Now leave." He ordered. Her face went blank, and she untangled herself from the sheets, walking towards her clothes. Damon flopped backwards as she began dressing, and watched her walk out of the room, looking in confusion at the blood on her hand. He licked his lips in remembrance, she had tasted amazing, but didn't compare to Klaus at all.

"Damon?" He looked up to see Elena walking into his room, a puzzled look on her face. He sat up and he could see there was an angry undertone to her eyes, but he shrugged it off and wrapped the sweaty sheets around his body before walking over to his clothing drawer. "Who was that girl?" She asked.

"What girl?" Damon asked, pulling open his clothing drawers with one hands, while the other kept the sheets around him.

"Don't play dumb, the one who walked out of the boarding house while you were in the shower." She accused him. "You know, the one with the _bitemark_ on her neck."

"Oh _her_!" Damon's facial movements were exaggerated as he made his eyes light up in fake remembrance. He turned away from Elena briefly to grab a pair of black boxers. Letting the towel fall momentarily, he slipped them on. "Yeah, we had a blast. I'm surprised you and Stefan didn't hear anything, well then again, his thoughts tend to get pretty loud when he's hating himself." He shrugged, starting towards his shirt drawer.

"Did you compel her?" Elena asked.

"Just to leave." Damon replied, roughly pulling a shirt over his chest. He shut the drawer, and picked up his jeans off the floor, and slipped into them. He put his shoes on, and faced Elena for good this time. She had her arms folded, and was scowling as she shook her head quickly in disapproval. She was just extremely lucky that Ann had unknowingly calmed him down, otherwise she would be in extreme danger if she touched a nerve.

"Damon, you can't treat women like that." She told him, Damon scoffed audibly, and Elena gave him a shocked look. Although, he failed to notice her tone had been different, it sounded more tired, like she was a mother telling her child not to climb on the cabinets. Or dog not to chew up the carpet. He was already falling through the cracks anyway, what harm would a few more feet under do?

"Okay, how about a _man_ then?" Damon smirked at her, leaning in a little closer. He heard her heartbeat and it sped up ten-fold. He didn't know, or care, whether it was she was scared, or because unadmitted feelings. All Damon could think about was Klaus. When he was in the shower, when he was with that woman. Klaus was all his brain was willing to think about. "It's not like I'd hurt her or anything."

"What's wrong with you?" Elena asked sharply. _Now_ her tone was back to condescending and annoying, with a piercing glare to match. Damon shrugged it off, feeling slightly better about the fact that his time with Klaus was "soon". But when was soon? It was killing him to stay here.

"Nothing's wrong, Elena." He gave her a wry smile. "I'm just done letting my humanity get in the way." His tone was soft, and oddly chipper sounding. Damon just blamed his dirty thoughts. Extremely dirty thoughts...

"You've come so far Damon, don't give up." Elena reached out and touched his shoulder. Damon was instantly flashing back to the sacrifice again, and how she was making him be the better man. It was an extremely similar situation, only there was no independing vampire doom as of yet. Although in the town of Mystic Falls, it was like a waiting game. "You're just throwing it all away."

Damon sighed. It was high time to get this girl off of her high horse. It was time to drop the truth bombs, there was no use venting about her in silence, because then she wouldn't be able to face up to her actions, and that was exactly what she needed to do. He failed to mention any of this last time he spoke to her, because he had his hands full trying to convince her that it was alright for a vampire to drink human blood.

"No, I'm just being myself, and not some cheap imitation who's been ruined by _you_." He glared at her, and the moment the last word came from his mouth and hung in the air, Elena snatched her hand back, like Damon was a burning firepoker.

"Excuse me!?" She screeched. Damon felt his usual smirk slid into place, he held all the cards in this argument, not her. And it felt good to know she was being put in her place for once, since Stefan would never grow enough of a backbone to do it himself. Damon almost laughed at the thought of a human girl controlling a vampire. He had fallen victim to it, but no more.

"You heard me right, Elena." Damon told her, and her face took on a look of confusion. He grinned and started to elaborate further. "You ruined me, you manipulated me, and you are exactly like Katherine." He suddenly felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his chest, and he wondered if Stefan had thought the same thing.

"That is not true!" She shook her head, and Damon could see the beginning of tears in her eyes. Weeks ago, he would have comforted her, but not anymore. He owed it to Klaus for opening his eyes just that little bit wider and making him face the reality - Elena was making him and his brother re-live their rather-would-be-forgotten past from 1864. Damon supposed Klaus could do other things besides wreak havoc.

"Oh isn't it?" Damon's eyebrows danced angrily above his eyes before settling down. How was it possible for her to be so _blind_? Blind to everything? His old feelings for her, or the fact she was treating them both like dogs, yanking them around on leashes. "Do you remember, back in Duke when you wanted information on Katherine, you _manipulated _me." He stared down at her.

"You had information that I needed to know." She defended herself with the same meager and feeble excuse that she had all those months ago, before she left him in the dust. Damon scoffed at her, and she stepped back from him, obviously not liking where any of this was going.

"You _strung me along_." He growled at her, summoning his vampire visage for a terrifying display of anger. "Not to mention you rejected me _right after_ Katherine did. I would have helped you look if you'd just asked and stopped being such a petty little girl strutting around thinking she has the right to boss me around."

"Damon..." She tried, but he cut her off abruptly. He was doing the talking for once, and she was doing the listening. Whether she liked it or not.

"And need I mention the kiss on my deathbed?" He decided to throw more back in her face, feeling oddly joyful about the situation. "Which, quite ironically, was my own bed."

"It was a goodbye kiss, Damon." Elena's words cut through him more deeply than he had expected, and he was debating whether to _turn_ his humanity switch off, instead of acting like he had. "Nothing more. I thought you were going to die."

His vampire visage was flaring up uncontrollably, it was one thing to hear it from someone else, but hearing it from her own mouth was another thing entirely. "You heartless, inconsiderate _bitch_!" It was so tempting, right there and then, to end her life. But it wouldn't serve his greater adgenda, and he was in the process of planning something huge, and very destructive, just as soon as Klaus told him whether he wanted him or not.

"Damon what's wrong with you!?" Elena was backed up against the wall opposite them, and Damon hadn't even realised he'd moved towards her. At all. A vampire's anger was a formidable thing indeed.

"This whole thing, Elena." He growled again. "Why is it _any_ of your business why a vampire kills townsfolk to survive? Not everyone has good in them Elena. And I swear if you use my brother as an excuse one more time, I will _rip your tongue out_." He threatened, and this was the one time he would hurt her. He could tell he had thrown Elena into a tank full of sharks and had taken away the life-preserver.

She was scrambling around, trying desperately to find it. She was losing ground and Damon was glad. "Are you on vervain?" She asked.

"What? You think I'm _compelled_ to be acting like this?" Damon asked incredulously. It was unbelievable, the minute someone around Elena started acting differently, she told herself, _deluded_ herself with the fact that there must be something wrong with them. Damon was not a broken toy that needed fixing, he was _not_ a worn-down shoe that needed to be thrown away, he was just him. Perfect and imperfect in every way possible.

"Well I'm not. This is me, minus the humanity of course." Damon gestured down to himself, and then showed Elena a sadistic-looking grin. Her heartbeat was out of control, and Damon knew he had been the one to cause it, striking fear into the hearts of others, like a vampire should. "And I've gotta say, lovin' it." He whistled the MacDonald's theme song, and Elena frowned at him. He stopped, and smirked again.

"Turn it back on Damon, if you want to be in my life then-"

"I don't really care what you want." He said freely, throwing his hands up in the air. He moved away from her, and stood in the middle of _his_ room. "And you're in _my _house, in _my _room, so you do not get to bat your eyelashes and make demands around here." He snarled at her. "Not anymore."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm on about the sacrifice, Elena." Damon told her, for all that time, it had been demand after demand from her, and person after person queueing up in line to protect her. "I get that your parents died, I get that you've lost people, but sometimes it's every man for himself. Especially in this town."

"I'm not like that." Elena shook her head, peeling herself away from the wall she'd been pressed against. She came extremely close to him again, and Damon took a step back. She was trying to regain control of the situation, but he was not going to let her. "I was protecting the people I love." She insisted.

"No, you were sending them to their deaths." Damon pointed out, sounding like he had already had this conversation with her before. Only a few hours ago she was the one tired of all the arguments, but paradoxically, she started one every time she came to lecture him on something he'd done. He was changing, but so was _she_. "Caroline and Tyler were supposed to die, Jenna definitely wasn't. If you hadn't gotten me to save them, Tyler wouldn't have bitten me, Stefan wouldn't have left with Klaus, you'd still have an Aunt taking care of you-"

"But Bonnie would be dead." Elena said abruptly. Damon was dumbfounded at that point. He had laid out all the facts in a form that even a _two-year old_ would understand, and then she pulled him back ten steps?

"Well in hindsight, one death is better than four, only you can't see that because you're like a mother duck who wants all her ducks in a row, in line, and falling behind her." Damon knew it sounded ironic, but it was the only thing he could think of to compare the situation to. "Oh, and another thing, I don't really care about Bonnie-Freaking-Bennett. Give me one reason why I should. She's the Queen of Judgy-ness, second to you of course." He sneered.

"Get out." Elena commanded icily.

"What?" Damon couldn't believe her. It was _his_ room, and she had the audacity to tell him to leave it. She had done it once before, and even then she had no right, and she certainly had no right now.

"Get out." She repeated, folding her arms.

"This is _my _house, you get out." He spat, also folding his arms. He guaranteed he could hold out for longer than she could, but his hands were twitching, and he knew he would rip something to shreds in the next few seconds, and the nearest thing was Elena Gilbert. The one who started it all. It would be so easy...

"What's going on?" Damon could have hit the roof. Stefan was stood in the doorway, and saving Elena. Damon still couldn't believe, although he was used to it, the fact that Elena always needed someone to step in and save her. Couldn't she do it herself? Damon thought back to the nineteenth century, and woman did not fight for rights and equality, just for Elena to send their hard work back into the Dark Ages.

"Oh Steffy, ever the White Knight, coming to Elena's rescue." He scoffed, moving away from her. Stefan came to stand between the two of them, and he rounded on Damon. He loved his brother, but sometimes he could be a real pain in the ass. But he was nowhere near as bad as Elena, so that was a start.

"What's going on, Damon?" He asked sternly, his frown-lines peeking through his skin as his eye brows knotted together.

"I was just opening her eyes to the reality that she needs to wake up and face."

"What's that?" Elena pointed to a stain on his shirt, and Damon peeled it away from his skin, looking at it. It was a dried blood stain from a few weeks ago. It couldn't be linked to his recent feeding in any way, but he had a feeling Elena was starting to get suspicious about him. Luckily, he was stronger than Stefan - much stronger while under the influence of pure human blood - he was faster than Stefan, and could overpower him in seconds.

"Blood. From a blood bag." He stated, thinking that he must have forgotten to put his shirt in the wash last week. "So don't get all high and mighty on me." He pierced his eyes into Elena's, and she took a step back. Stefan put his arm across her like a barrier. It was all well and good that he was protecting her - as usual - but he didn't know the whole situation. But even if he did, he would probably take Elena's side anyway.

"I'm going before I rip this entire room to shreds, and that bed wasn't exactly cheap." He shook his head, trying to calm himself down, although nothing was working. "Egyptian cotton, whew, _that_ was expensive." He whistled. "Bye Stefan, bye..." He decided he was going to drive the knife even deeper into Elena. "..._Katherine_."

Damon walked out of the boarding house for the second time that day, hating the fact Elena had driven him out both times, but he didn't even give his Camaro a second glance, and just kept walking. He didn't care who he bumped into, and he didn't care where he ended up. He just needed to get away from everyone for a few minutes. He came to a stop a few minutes later.

"Well that was quite a spat, wasn't it?" Damon wasn't even surprised to find Klaus stood behind him this time, although he was surprised at where he was. He had managed to walk into the forest in a short amount of time. But it wasn't just that, it was what he saw.

Klaus looked different... _riled up. _All his current mental epithets towards Elena burned away at the sight of the hybrid. He looked in desperate need to rip something to shreds, and Damon was praying it wasn't because of anything he had done.

"You know, this whole stalker thing is getting creepy." He commented, walking over to him. He turned towards a tree sapling, and broke one of the thin branches off. "Not to mention too Edward Cullen-y."

"Don't mention that abomination to the Vampire species in front of me, or near me, ever again." Klaus warned him, and Damon knew he always carried out what he planned or threatened.

"Agreed." No more was said on the subject, and Damon was glad. He suspected it irritated vampires, and vampire fans and believers, everywhere. But all that irritated Damon right now, was Little Miss Elena Gilbert. Her, and her self-righteous ways. Right now, he was contemplating each and every way he could kill her and make his brother suffer his eternity of misery that he had promised him.

"Anger is such an unhealthy emotion Damon, not to mention exhausting." Klaus said, walking up towards him, and Damon was about to call him out for being a hypocrite, but he beat him to it and started talking again. "Take my word for it."

"I'm not angry, I'm just-" Damon stopped, mid-cover-up. "Yeah, okay, I'm angry. It's all Elena's fault! Miss Morality Police, along with her sidekick Suck-Up-Steffy the Bunny-Eater." He growled. It was beginning to get personal, she was treating Stefan like a lap-dog too, and he was supposed to be her "epic love". But he acted none the wiser - and where was he hiding every time Damon and Elena argued about something? - so he was just as much to blame. He had a sweet, forgiving nature, and Elena was taking advantage of it all.

"Hmm, seems we're both angry at something." Klaus observed. Damon was puzzled, if Klaus was angry, why would he need to find him? Not unless he was going to snap him in half, heal him with his blood, and then snap him over and over again. Damon discreetly glanced around the forest floor, hoping to find some kind of weapon, but he couldn't. He may have fed recently, but he was still no match for Klaus.

"What are you angry about?" Damon treaded carefully, if he messed anything up, his brother went back to being Klaus' pet. But Damon couldn't help but feel a little jealous at that, what was so special about Stefan? The fact that he was a Ripper? It was an easy skill for any vampire to master, just block out the guilt, and start killing. It was strange, Damon hadn't felt _this_ kind of jealousy before. It felt ten times stronger than what he used to feel when he saw his brother and Elena, or even Stefan and _Katherine_.

"You just said it was unhealthy and exhausting a minute ago." Damon continued, and Klaus just stood there quietly, watching him with intense eyes. "I thought old people were supposed to be wise?" He smirked, amazed that Klaus wasn't rushing at him with a sharpened log. He grew nervous as Klaus' body was suddenly _very_ close to his.

"I know." He gave a smile, but it then dropped. Damon groaned as Klaus' hand clapped around his throat and squeezed tightly, choking him. Damon closed a hand around Klaus' wrist, but like every other time, he was too strong. "But I'm angry because you spent time with a woman who you picked up from the Grill like a stray dog." He enlightened him, before shoving him backwards into a tree.

Damon groaned in pain, feeling his head spin. He couldn't help but be amazed though, unless Klaus was watching him through the window - and voyeurism didn't seem like something Klaus would do - how did he know about Ann? "How did you-?"

"I can smell her on you." Klaus stated, his tone a mix between hard and jealous. Damon would have laughed, if Klaus' hand wasn't crushing his windpipe. He seemed like the type of person who would get jealous if his friend-with-benefits with no emotional attachment was seeing someone else. Although Damon couldn't put a name on what category the two of them fell into. They'd kissed once, and Klaus was jealous over the fact that he'd spent some time with a woman. Although the entire time Damon was with Ann, he _had_ been thinking about Klaus...

"So how is it a-"

"Problem?" Klaus finished for him, tightening his grip. Damon felt all the air get trapped in his body, and his gasp became lost in his throat as a few bones began to strain under the pressure. "It is what it is, because you're mine and mine only." Klaus told him sternly.

Damon's lips curved into a wicked grin. He couldn't help it - he wondered what Klaus would do if he laughed at the current situation - he never pictured Klaus as the jealous type. "Could you be anymore jealous?" His teasing was strained as he struggled in Klaus' hold. His eyes suddenly lit up, like he was amused.

"As a matter of fact, yes I can." He smiled, and this time it reached his eyes. "But I think you'd prefer this milder version."

"What would the other version be?" Damon asked, intrigued.

"You would be unable to walk when I would be done with you, and you wouldn't be able to speak from screaming my name so much." Klaus smirked at him, and Damon felt a good portion of his blood rush southward at that. What he wouldn't give for someone to dominate him for a while, he was always the one in control, and it was beginning to get extremely tedious.

"I get it, you're an animal." Damon licked his lips as they had suddenly became dry, shifting around as his arousal began to get painful. The things Klaus' voice could do to him amazed him, and Damon wanted to find out what else Klaus could do to him. It was exhilarating and slightly nerve-wrecking to think about.

"Hmm, you have _no_ idea..." Klaus' voice was husky in an instant, and his eyes glowed that haunting shade of amber. Damon swallowed, and Klaus chuckled at him, bringing his face extremely close. Damon squirmed in his grip, but Klaus made no indication that he was going to let him go.

There was nothing but silence between them, save a few raspy breaths coming from Damon, and it seemed relaxing, yet unnerving at the same time. Damon hated how Klaus always left him wanting more, or trying to anticipate his next move. It was ironic that he was attracted to the man who had stripped his brother of his humanity and was in the process of destroying his own - not that he cared much anyway - but it was also fitting in a way. Klaus seemed to be the only one who understood him. Understood his choices and didn't question them.

Damon's train of thoughts were smashed as he felt Klaus' lips on his. It was different, _much_ different to the last time, the kiss was rough, angry and possessive. Damon cried out into Klaus' mouth as the hybrid's free hand grabbed his head and slammed it into the tree trunk. His skull cracked and his head was pounding. All the power he'd felt from his previous feed on Ann was gone from his body. To say Klaus was jealous was a understatment, and it also scared him to know that _this_ was the milder version Klaus was talking about.

Klaus broke away from him, barely giving him seconds to take another breath before claiming his lips again. Damon was excited to say the least, but his chest was also burning for air. He groaned into the kiss as Klaus pressed his hand there, and slashed his fingernails through Damon's shirt, piercing the skin.

Klaus' mouth moved from his lips, and Damon rapidly gasped in what little air he could. He closed his eyes in a mixture of contentment and pleasure as Klaus' lips reached one of the tears in his shirt. His spare hand gripped it, and tore it from his body. Damon moaned and tangled one of his hands into Klaus' hair as he began sucking from the open, stinging wounds he'd left.

Blood-stained lips kissed a delicate trail up Damon's neck, and across one cheek to his ear. Damon couldn't help the high-pitched whine that escaped him as Klaus began to roll his earlobe between his teeth, or the second one as Klaus' hands skated on the waistband of his jeans. Damon had never wanted anyone so badly in his entire life, and he didn't care if it was wrong.

"Say you're mine, Damon." Klaus whispered, his lips ghosting over Damon's neck. He groaned in frustration. He wanted Klaus to kiss him, devour him, and he had seemed very keen with the idea a few moments ago. His hold tightened on his throat once more, and Damon groaned again. His head was aching, and he wouldn't be surprised if Klaus had somehow broken a few of his blood vessels.

"Say it." Klaus demanded softly, and Damon cried out, moaning, struggling and twisting as Klaus' teeth bit down on his pulse point. He was extremely glad Klaus' fangs hadn't been extended. He couldn't help but have a strange sense of déjà vu. It was like at Gloria's bar, Klaus had bitten him, and threatened him into answering a question, now, Klaus was making him say that he was his.

"Damon..." He warned him, softly biting his chin. Damon stilled as he felt Klaus' claws press against his chest once more, trailing down his stomach towards the waistband of his jeans. He gave another high-pitched whine as Klaus' fingers skated around where he needed them most. Klaus' lips returned to his, biting roughly and sucking on the blood he drew. Damon was completely helpless underneath him and he hated it, but he wanted more. There were only two words that would give him that.

"I'm yours."

~ooOOoo~

**(A/N) So, what do we think? Good? Bad? Horrible? Either way, review and tell me what you thought. I'd appreciate it, and I'm pretty sure some of your Klamon-loving-maybe-Elena-hating hearts would too. ;-) Oh, and remember that I've left a cliffhanger with Klaus and Damon, so I'll leave you all to guess what's gonna happen next. All I can say, is that there's a lot of it next chapter. ;-)**

**Also, I tried not to make Damon bitch about Elena too much, but he has to get everything out some time. Well, I suppose I could do it in little sections rather than a whole chapter's worth of it, right? Don't worry, he'll say some stuff to her face soon, very soon, so it won't be an inner monologue of "oh shit, here we go again".**

**See you soon.**


	4. Chapter 4

**(A/N) Hey there guys, sorry I took so long (well, a week and a bit ain't that bad) and thanks for the reviews last chapter. 52 with three chapters is a big achievement for me. especially since the number of chapters is only small. **

**Alright, last chapter I left you guys with a cliffhanger with Klaus and Damon, so now you all get to see what happens afterwards! I think some of you die-hard Klamon fans will like it, and Damon doesn't have much inner monologue about Elena this time (he doesn't tell it to her face yet, but he will **_**soon**_**) because he's with Klaus.**

**Okay, I'm just gonna reply to some reviews/answer questions and then we can get started.**

** - **_**Thanks for the review, and Red's next chapter **_**is**_** a continution of it, but it's only gonna be a twoshot. I'll probably post it soon.**_

**Jay - **_**Well now you can find out what Klaus is gonna do (took me ages to write)**_

**Damonfan123 - **_**Yeah, he has met his stronger match, but this is Damon we're talking about, so he's probably gonna learn the very hard way. ;-)**_

**Haru Maru Salvatore -**_** Okay, your reviews never fail to make me crack up laughing, and I'm glad you liked the exchange between Damon and Klaus,and if you combusted at that bit, have a fire extinguisher ready. :-P And nothing really happens to me when I leave Klaus/Damon in pretty compromising positions, I just have to write the next chapter pretty quick so the inspiration doesn't go away.**_

**Guest - **_**Yes, finally someone else can see the sexual tension! (2x20 3x03 & 4x10 anyone?) I swear if Elena gets bitchy again, I'm all for Damon going to New Orleans and shackin' up with Klaus. I'd laugh if I saw Damon's reaction to Klaus being a Dad. Hmm, yep, time to embarrass him and corrupt hybrid. Jr... - Who else can picture Damon doing that!? XD**_

**I hope you enjoy the chapter and review, lets aim for more than sixty! And as always, tell me what you liked/I could improve on, if the characters were in character, etc. :-)**

**Warning: This chapter is smut central (finally, I've been waiting to write this! XD)**

~ooOOoo~

_They're whatever I want them to be. They're mine for the taking._ - Damon Salvatore.

.

.

_I'm yours... _The two words lingered in the air as soon as they left Damon's lips, and a calm silence settled between the two men. Damon had never meant anything more than he had meant those two words in his entire life, nor had he ever _wanted_ anyone else so badly in his life. He realised now, after being with Klaus, that what he had, had with Katherine - and even Elena - had been nothing but an infatuation. With Klaus it was _real_. It felt real, and he knew with a confidence that Klaus would never try and change the killer side of him. Hell, he was the one who had gotten Damon to embrace it!

But there was one drawback - Damon was slightly afraid to lay his feelings on the line, since they had been hurt repeatedly by the people he loved. Katherine, Elena, his brother, even his bastard of a father. But Klaus was giving him every indication that he wasn't going to reject him and leave him broken. Damon needed to taste true darkness, he had, had enough of existing in the realm of feeble twilight.

It was either Darkness, or Light, one couldn't be without the other, but people were either one or the other. Damon was ready to take the step forwards that he needed to immerse himself in his forbidden desires, but he didn't need to move a muscle. Klaus' lips were already trailing up to his neck, passing over the shell of his ear. Damon squirmed and shuddered again, making Klaus chuckle at his reaction.

"Yes you most certainly are..." Klaus whispered. Damon took in a raspy breath of excitment, and Klaus _finally_ removed his hand from around his throat, and let it descend downwards, resting on his chest. Damon tried to control his breathing, but he couldn't grasp it. And as if to make matters - pleasurably - worse, he felt Klaus' lips ghost over his own, tasting them, but not claiming them... _yet_. Damon couldn't help but hold his breath, or the fact that he felt like his legs were going to buckle any second.

Damon knew by the mischievious and knowing glint in his eyes that Klaus was not oblivious to his unraveling, and he was going to take full advantage. Light kisses were peppered across his throat, and Damon's body reacted to every single one, trembling against Klaus' hand that was holding him against the tree. The Original chuckled, and leaned forwards to whisper in Damon's ear.

"Damon..." His tongue flicked out, brushing against Damon's earlobe. He immediately closed his mouth to muffle the whimper that was sneaking up on him. "Do you want to kiss me?" He purred, returning to the dreaded task of teasing him. Damon leaned back as far as he was able, and allowed the pleasure to roll through him. If Klaus saw he was ruffled by his teasing, it would become a weapon against him. Klaus however, had other ideas. He bit down sharply on the fleshy expanse of skin above the collarbone, and Damon couldn't help the whimper that snaked out of his mouth.

Klaus grinned against his neck, and Damon felt himself flush with embarrassment. Usually, he was the one in charge, and he had something to fall back on, but now he wasn't the one in control, he was falling fast, head-first into dangerous territory. "Do you want me to kiss _you_?"

Damon gasped openly as Klaus' kisses became more bruising. He felt a familiar ache between his legs as he thought about that talented mouth claiming his, and forced his mouth to move. "Yes."

"Good." Klaus murmured in between kisses, stoking the fire in Damon's body with force. "It's good to want things, love."

Damon moaned in frustration as Klaus' tongue trailed up his neck. He figured that was exactly what Klaus wanted, the satisfaction of being _told_ what he wanted. "_Klaus..._" He squirmed, trying to create some space between them, but Klaus didn't let up, and his teeth and lips continued their relentless pursuit of Damon's flesh.

"And now for the rest of your punishment." Klaus' words registered with his brain, and he froze. Klaus smirked at him and gripped the front of his shirt. He pulled him backwards with a burst of strength, and Damon found himself on his back, grit and mud flecking on his shirt. He struggled against Klaus' hold, but it became unbearably tight again, holding his upper body off the ground by his shirt.

"Punishment?" Damon said in bewilderment. His struggles didn't relent; whatever Klaus' idea of a punishment was, Damon knew it would be bad news. He couldn't help the unmistakable ache between his legs strengthen to the point where it was physically obvious though. The word was too double-sided to just mean that it would be painful.

Klaus' mouth was by his neck once more, sucking gently before asending up to Damon's ear. "Hmm, you've been a bad boy." He knew Klaus was talking about Ann, what else would he be angry about? Damon was killing people, exactly like he had told him, and he knew Klaus couldn't care about Elena if he tried.

"You like it." Damon panted between lust-filled breaths, awaiting his "punishment" with obvious anticipation. _God_ Klaus' lips were so tempting.

"No, I like it when I stop someone's life, hearing their screams of pain and the cries of their families." Klaus corrected him, bringing his face back into Damon's eyeline. Damon swallowed, albeit nervously, when Klaus' lips curved into an extremely wicked-looking grin. "But, I _love_ it when you're bad." He let out a feral snarl before his teeth attached themselves to Damon's neck. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and gasps spilled from his lips over and over again. He wrapped a hand around Klaus' back to keep him there.

Damon's entire body lurched upwards and he screamed in pure ecstasy as Klaus devilishly slid a hand into Damon's jeans, gripping him tightly through his boxers and began working him. _Extremely_ fast. Waves of pleasure were engulfing him all at once, threatening to throw him over the brink there and then, but Damon knew Klaus wouldn't let him off - no pun intended - that easily.

He whimpered from the ferocity of Klaus' pleasurable assault, allowing himself to drown in the thrill of it. But it didn't stop the tightness he felt at his core - like someone was coiling rope around his spine - or the pain he was experiencing from Klaus' skilled mouth and _very_ sharp teeth.

Damon's head rolled around helplessly, and he struggled underneath Klaus like a trapped animal. "Klaus s-stop it-" He panted breathlessly, pushing against his body as he felt his release creep faster upon him. Klaus' legs cleverly kept him still, but it didn't stop him from struggling. He screamed as his body jolted upwards, teeming with untamable energy. Never in his life had he felt something this powerful before.

"Shhh..." Klaus whispered in his ear, pausing in his maiming of Damon's neck. Damon groaned as Klaus' occupied hand became all the more faster. He writhed again, kicking and squirming in earnest. His moans suddenly became muffled as Klaus pressed his free hand over his mouth. "You can tell me to stop _all_ you want, Damon, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm. In. Charge." He punctuated the last three words with a harsh bite on Damon's throat.

His release hit him _hard_ and suddenly, soaring and pulsating through every inch of his body. He shivered as he heard Klaus chuckling in his ear, breathing heavily alongside him as his every and all attempts to scream were blocked by his hand. Damon felt like his jaw was going to crack under the pressure Klaus was putting on it.

Damon sucked in a breath as Klaus removed his hand, occupying it with gently stroking his cheek. Damon felt light-headed from how much he was panting, but he couldn't stop. That was the most intense thing he had ever felt in his life. Although he was still panting rapidly from his explosive release, but managed to speak.

"When?" He asked. It was the same question he always seemed to be asking, but he couldn't help it if it kept weighing heavily on his mind. He needed to leave soon, or have some indication that he would be, or Damon knew he would start to doubt everything that he and Klaus had been through the past few days.

"Soon, Damon, I promise. Just have some patience." Damon felt frustration surge through him, it was the exact same answer as the last time he had asked. How much more did he need to prove himself? He was already risking everything, what more did Klaus want? Or was it a test from Damon's side, what if _he_ had to make the final decision, or maybe Klaus knew the outcome all along.

"Although if you want some advice, bring it closer to home, stop all their fruitless efforts to catch a vampire, who in reality is right under their noses." Klaus' voice broke his streamline of thoughts, and Damon looked up at him.

"But there's nothing to stop me from getting locked up." He pointed out. Nothing could ever be fool-proof, or come with a fail-safe in Mystic Falls, it was one of _those_ towns. Not even Katherine, who was a master in the area of back-stabbing and duplicity, ever had a fail-safe plan. They always blew up in her face, one way or another, and Damon was certain that if he tried anything too close to home, he would be next.

Klaus exhaled softly, his eyelids closing for a split second. Damon watched him, knowing he always had an answer for everything. "Be the risk-taker that I met Damon, you were brave enough to try and convince me to postpone breaking a curse which made me the most powerful creature on the planet, so I'm fairly certain you'll be able to think up a way to evade Elena." Damon chuckled in remembrance at the day he had met Klaus in person.

He had been drawn to him since then, there was something about him that made his dark side burn white-hot with a passion. Damon suspected it was the fact that Klaus was stronger than him, and he loved a challenge, but he knew _something_ had been there from the very beginning, otherwise he wouldn't have been staring at Klaus' lips while he talked in that luxurious accent...

"I still can't believe you're really doing this just for your brother." Klaus' tone had a hint of admiration. Damon thought for a moment, he had originally been doing this to free Stefan from Klaus' clutches, but it seemed like he'd fallen into the same trap. The only difference was that Damon was willing, Stefan had been forced to save his brother, but Damon had taken the idea of servitude up on his own ground. It had progressed this far, and Damon was never going back.

"I'm not even sure I am anymore." He said, shaking his head. Klaus watched him with a quizzical look while Damon tried to make sense of the feelings that were running through his body. It couldn't be lust, if it was, there wouldn't be any in-between conversations, and Klaus _definetely_ wouldn't have gotten jealous over him sleeping with someone, and Damon wouldn't have been thinking about him the whole time. "I just..." He trailed off, unsure of what to say.

Klaus tilted his head to the side, and studied him carefully. "Just what, Damon?"

"I want you." Damon barely had time to breathe before Klaus' lips ensared his. The kiss wasn't soft, wasn't passionate, it was raw, primal _hunger_. Tongues battled fiercely and teeth clashed. Opposing hands were rapidly clawing at the clothing of the other, drawing blood as nails nicked the exposed skin. Damon felt Klaus' hands on his belt and slowly started to unbuckle it-

_Bzzzt... _

_Bzzzt... _

_Bzzzt... _

Both vampires broke away in surprise at the sound of loud buzzing. At first, Damon would have pinned it down to a swarm of bees but the thought was quickly dashed from his brain as he felt his phone vibrating against his leg. _Whoever was on the other end was going to die._

"Oh come on! Really?" Damon exploded, becoming increasingly irritated with the buzzing by his leg. Klaus watched him with an amused smirk on his face while he searched for his phone. Damon reached angrily inside his pocket, and spitefully, _childishly_, stuck his tongue out at Klaus. His eyes gained a dangerous looking glimmer in them, and Damon guessed he was about to pay for that.

Distracting himself, he checked the caller I.D. _Elena_. He almost swore out loud, but decided to answer her call, otherwise she would continue to pester him. And if she interrupted another moment between him and Klaus again, she was going to be in serious trouble. He pressed the green button, and held the phone to his ear, watching Klaus who grinned slyly at him. "Elena this had better be life or Death!"

There was a startled sounding breath coming from Elena's end of the line before she finally spoke. "Damon, I-I really need to talk to you." A groan crept up his throat as he felt Klaus slip his hand into his jeans again. Klaus looked at him innocently, making gentle circles on his stomach with his other hand.

Damon narrowed his eyes, and brought himself back into the conversation with Elena. She hadn't found out he was behind the killings, had she? "A-About what?" Damon was panting now, Klaus was becoming relentless. Then it struck him, what better way to humiliate him, than by teasing him with something he desperately wanted while he was on the phone to Elena. Damon clamped his lips together as Klaus' hand gripped him tightly through his boxers. "Klaus, dammit!" He growled at him, then he froze.

"That wasn't smart, was it?" Klaus mouthed at him, his delight in Damon's struggle written all over his face.

"About what you said-" Elena stopped mid-sentence, and Damon could have groaned out of exasperation. She had realised he'd said Klaus' name. "Wait, did you just say _Klaus_? He's here!?" Her voice raised an octave, and Damon frowned, pulling it away from his ear, but so he could still hear her.

"No, of course I didn't say _Klaus_-" He eyed the Hybrid angrily as his hand _slowly_ began to move, re-igniting the fire in his core. Klaus still maintained his innocent-looking smile, although his eyes were shining with triumph. Damon scowled and shook his head at him. Damn Klaus and his teasing. "-Elena, he's still in Chicago." _More like in the wood's ontop of me..._ Damon thought. Then it was _his_ turn to grin, Elena would be in fits if she knew what he was really up to.

"Alright, well, where are you?" She asked in a much quieter voice.

Damon gritted his teeth - partly because Klaus wasn't giving up - and hardened his jaw. "Doing something that for once does not involve saving you, or queueing up to die for you, in fact. It doesn't involve you at all."

Elena gasped, like she was affronted, and quickly spoke back. "Damon, I-"

"Hey!" Damon snapped as Klaus took his phone from him, silencing Elena's annoying babbling. He also felt a loss of burning in his stomach, and although he was annoyed that Klaus had stopped, he felt relieved too. He didn't think he could take anymore, not after the first time. "Thank you." He meant it both ways, although Klaus didn't need to know that.

"No problem." Klaus slipped Damon's phone into his pocket. "I can't have her stealing you away, can I?" Damon smirked as he felt tones of Klaus' jealousy seeping through. It felt somewhat... _reassuring_. No-one had ever been jealous over him, people had been jealous _of_ him, but never over him.

Damon shook his head. "I wouldn't let her." He said firmly.

"Because...?" Klaus' voice trailed off expectantly, idly tracing circles over the fabric of his shirt.

Damon rolled his eyes playfully, although the words that came out of his mouth next were entirely serious. "Because I'm all yours."

Klaus smiled, satisfied with his work, and moved to tower over him like a tiger who had caught it's prey. "That's right, so no picking up women from bars."

"What about men?" Damon asked cheekily.

Klaus narrowed his eyes. "Don't push it, Salvatore." He warned dangerously. Damon smirked, what was the worst he could do? "Punish" him again? Although he would never admit this unless compelled to, he found it _extremely_ enjoyable.

"Or what?" Damon taunted him, teasing him. "You won't hurt me." He knew Klaus wouldn't _physically _hurt him - just engage him in something pleasurable until he was screaming his name so much it hurt him or he lost his voice - he just wanted to see his reaction.

"_Oh_?" Klaus smiled at him, slipping his hand into Damon's jeans yet again, only this time it didn't go to where Damon needed it, instead Klaus roughly palmed the skin on his hip, creating heat and friction with the pads of his fingers. Damon gasped and squirmed underneath him, trying to get away from him. Klaus chuckled above him. "_That_ hurts, doesn't it?" He asked with a smug expression.

He withdrew his hand, and Damon scowled at him. "Have I mentioned how insufferable you are sometimes?" He huffed. Klaus chuckled once more, and dipped his head down towards his neck. Damon yelped and grabbed onto his shoulders as Klaus' teeth clamped down on a nerve in the side of his neck.

"Still think I can't hurt you?" He asked with a grin, knowing he'd won.

"Just shut up and kiss me." Damon demanded. Klaus chuckled and lowered his head towards his lips, whilst Damon lifted his up. But just before they could meet, his ears - and Klaus' - picked up the sound of rustling, flames crackling, and teenage girls giggling.

Klaus' eyes flooded with black, swapping out the unique color of his irises for that burnt amber color. "Hmmm, sounds like dinner's arrived." He flashed his fangs, and relucantly got off of Damon. He was less than impressed.

"Better be worth it." Damon grumbled, lifting himself off of the floor. He sped off in the direction of the girls, jumping up into the tree directly above where they were roasting marshmellows. Klaus was walking over to them, and Damon had to wait for the perfect moment. Klaus was going to attract their attention, and then they were going in for the kill.

One girl picked her marshmellow off the end of her stick, and popped it into her mouth. She turned to the other girls, resuming the conversation that Klaus had heard which had alerted them both. "So, I was like, girl, stripes do not go with plaids." She said through a mouthful, and Damon rolled his eyes. _The youth of today._ He thought, shaking his head. _So shallow..._ Not that it mattered, they'd be dead soon anyway.

The girl sat at the end of the log spoke up, pulling her blackened marshmellow from the centre of the fire. She looked less than impressed to be there. Damon saw Klaus making his way over to them, and he smirked. She wouldn't be complaining soon. "Is fashion all you two ever talk about?" She grumbled, throwing her stick and burnt marshmellow away from her. It landed in a bush nearby, and a squirrel gave a startled yelp and scurried off.

"Oh stop being such a grumpy pants Fifi." The girl in the middle made a mocking pout at her friend. "Just because you can't roast a marshmallow." She teased, giving the girl her roasted one.

"Woah, hot guy alert!" The first girl's eyes widened, and Damon knew they had spotted Klaus. The man certainly did know how to make an entrance.

"Daisy!" The other two girls scolded her as he came closer.

"What?" She asked. "He is _smoldering_." Damon knew Klaus may be smoldering, but he was hiding a deadly beast underneath his beautiful exterior, just like him. He shifted into a crouched position, waiting to jump down. His fangs were burning, and it was only then he realised how hungry he actually was.

"Hey Mister!" One girl yelled over to Klaus. He briefly glanced up at the tree Damon was perched in, and then walked closer to the girl's fire.

"How can I help three beautiful ladies like yourselves?" He asked, putting on the charm. Damon leapt down from the tree, and landed behind them, purposely ruffling the forest floor in an effort to get them to turn around. They saw him and gasped, taking a step back. Klaus closed them in with his body, blocking them from going anywhere.

"You can stay still and not scream." Damon's vampire visage came through without much effort. He wasn't going to compel them, it was _much_ more fun not to. He snarled and grabbed one girl, sinking his fangs deep into her neck. More screams filled the air, disrupting the silence of the forest, as Klaus was undoubtedly feeding from one of the other girls, and their friend was screaming in horror while she watched.

As Damon drank, the girl's heartbeat slowed rapidly and she sagged. Damon held her up, greedily draining every last drop. Her blood was fresh, and warm. He guessed she was a country girl, they all were. That explained how they were so trusting, so forward, and so damn _delicous_.

Both Damon and Klaus' bodies dropped to the floor with joint thumps. Klaus smirked at him, exposing bloody teeth and deadly fangs. He rushed forwards and embedded his fangs deep into the remaining girl's neck. Her screams became defeaning, but Damon didn't care. It was literally music to his ears.

He walked over to them, taking a hold of one of her wrists, and brought it to his mouth. He had never been a fan of drinking from someone's wrist, but since Klaus occupied the neck, he wasn't going to complain. The girl certainly couldn't, she would be dead in a matter of minutes.

She dropped to the ground, and Klaus stepped forward and put his hands on Damon's shoulders, pulling him in closer. Damon grinned, and blood-stained lips met in a sorching kiss. Damon tangled his hands into Klaus' hair while his tongue claimed his mouth, he moaned in euphoria and writhed against him. He wanted more, _much_ more. He groaned in annoyance as Klaus pulled away from him, but his eyes were glowering and scanning his body.

"Let's take this somewhere else, shall we?" Klaus purred suggestively.

~ooOOoo~

Damon looked around and surveyed his surroundings as Klaus continued walking. They were in a hotel car park, the car park for _Albergo di lusso_, to be more precise. Damon recognised it as italian for "Hotel Fancy" and found himself rolling his eyes. Did nobody have any originality when naming places anymore?

He followed Klaus into the hotel - noticing that the hotel's car park was practically deserted, expect for a single black 1967 Chevy Impala, which was strange for such an elaborate hotel - and found that the interior really did live up to it's unoriginal name. The floor was a complete stretch of white marble, pillars ascended from the floor, with golden patterns trailing up them towards the center of the ceiling, where a large golden dragon with twinkling jade eyes nested.

"Of course, only the best for Mr. Original Hybrid." Damon murmured with an appreciative nod at the decorating. Evolution of technology was vastly improving.

"What was that Damon?" Klaus asked, turning around to look at him. The look in his eyes told Damon that Klaus already knew anyway.

"I didn't say anything." Damon smiled. Klaus wasn't convinced, but turned back around and continued towards the check-in desk, Damon following not too far behind. "Big ears..." He muttered.

"I heard that." Klaus said without turning around, and Damon scowled at his back, crinkling his nose at him.

They kept walking, and came to the check-in desk, it's lavishness matched up perfectly with it's surroundings, as did the girl behind the counter-top. Her uniform was a simple red blazer, with a golden trim, and she kept a pencil behind her ear while her manicured hands rested on the clipboard. Damon shot a glance, and saw the surname _Winchester_ at the top of the page.

Klaus tapped on the counter, and the girl looked up at him. "Excuse me, love, I need a room."

She pulled her pencil from behind her ear, and poised it above the clipboard. "One bed or two?" She asked.

He and Klaus shared a smirk. "One." He responded.

"Alright..." She muttered, scribbling it down on the clipboard. "Name, please?" She asked politely.

"Klaus."

She wrote that down too, and then put it down. She held her hand out. "Okay I just need an I.D. and a credit card." She said brightly.

Klaus looked directly into her eyes, compelling her. "No you don't."

Her coffee-brown eyes glazed over, but her smile never faltered. "Is there anything else I can do for you Klaus?" She asked.

"Keep everyone away from the room." Klaus ordered. _That_ hadn't been compulsion, but Damon knew Klaus was quite a charmer when he needed to be. They walked away from the desk, and Klaus' possessive eyes roamed his body with a spiteful backward glance at the check-in girl. Damon sniggered and grinned once they were out of earshot.

Klaus rushed at him and pinned him up to a door with his vampire speed, resting one hand on his chest. "What's so funny?" He asked, bringing his lips teasingly close to Damon's. The feeling of passion and longing returned to Damon's body, and his insides were burning with need.

"You..." His voice trailed off as his grin lessened to a sly smile. He walked two fingers up Klaus' chest, plucking open the first two buttons with nimble fingers. "Being jealous over me..." Damon locked eyes with Klaus, and that was the starting gun between them. Their lips clashed together in a fiery explosion of passion, Klaus' hands remained on Damon's chest, while Damon tangled one into Klaus' hair, and cleverly used his other to open the door behind him.

Their contact with each other broke momentarily as they stumbled inside, and Damon swiftly kicked at the door, slamming it shut. He grinned as he felt Klaus' lips smash back into his own. He didn't care that they were in a fancy Italian-named hotel because Klaus didn't have his own house yet, all he needed, was Klaus himself, the very comfy looking bed a few feet away from them, and to let off some steam.

Klaus seemed more than willing to let him, and Damon was glad. He had been holding so much anger in he couldn't believe it. He had been alive for a hundred and forty-five years, and he had never came close to being _this_ angry. And it was all because of- _No_, Damon was not going to think about her. She was not here in this room with him, and was not a primary concern of his anymore.

Damon felt the loss of contact break between them momentarily, but then felt blazing fires shoot through all his nerve-endings. His skin was ripped open, and he felt blood trickling down his neck. He was less than surprised to find out Klaus was the culprit, but he didn't mind. Damon somehow knew that Klaus would heal him anyway, besides, it didn't hurt much at all. Damon just pinned down to the fact his adrenaline was pumping ten-fold, and his desire for Klaus was far too strong to be expressed into words.

"Sorry." Klaus purred through bloody lips. Damon smiled back softly, and swiped his fingers down Klaus' chin, catching his own blood. Damon was about to put them into his mouth, but Klaus' hand caught it and held him still. "I couldn't help myself, you taste _so good_." Shivers ran up and down Damon's spine as Klaus brought his hand to his mouth, and licked the blood off of his fingers. If that wasn't a compliment of the highest order - especially from Klaus - Damon didn't know what was.

He pushed off the on-coming headache, choosing to focus on what he knew would lie ahead. The truth was, he had no idea. Klaus was the epitome of mysterious, and all that Damon saw, was a frienzied leap into the unknown. Damon's breathing increased as he felt Klaus' breath getting closer to his lips. His tongue flicked out, and trailed over his bottom lip. Damon was trying to keep his composure under wraps, but he lost it completely when Klaus leaned forward and sucked on his bottom lip, eliciting a whimper from him.

Klaus chuckled, clearly thrilled at the thought of making Damon Salvatore loose himself, and edged his lips closer and closer. But they didn't reach his lips, instead they floated downwards, and kissed the bitemark on Damon's neck. Through the haziness that had engulfed his mind, he moaned quietly, and tangled his fingers into Klaus' hair.

Not soon after, Klaus slammed his lips back onto Damon's, kissing him fiercely with wolf-like hunger. Damon felt his lips going numb from the strength behind it. They stopped kissing long enough for Klaus to pull Damon's jacket off, and then he kissed him again, with the same bruising force. Damon was intoxicated by that point, and he wanted more and more.

He gasped as he felt Klaus kissing the skin on his neck once more, only the tenderness was gone, and replaced by pure _power_. Slowly the kisses turned into bites and Damon was trembling with need, it felt strange, seeing as they had barely begun, but Damon expected nothing less from Klaus - the Original Hybrid.

Grabbing Klaus' collar impaitently, Damons hands ripped it open, some of the buttons popping off onto the floor, skidding under the bed that they would be on in a few moments. Klaus chuckled and slipped his arms out of it, throwing it on the floor. Damon ran his hands down Klaus' chest, while his hands held Damon's face and tilted it to the side slightly. Damon locked his arms tightly around Klaus' back and his head tipped back as Klaus continued to kiss his throat, sending him tumbling head-first into a mind-blowing wave of esctasy.

Damon shuddered as Klaus trailed his hands down his body and grabbed his thighs, pulling him closer. Damon's body grew numb and hot at the feeling of another pressed against it. It had been far too long since he had felt bliss like this. Ann had been nothing, but Klaus was everything. He was dangerous and unpredictable, all the things Damon wanted from someone. He was tired of there always being a continuous mould, and thankfully, Klaus was going to be the one to break it and scatter it into oblivion.

Klaus hastily ripped Damon's shirt over his head, and kissed him roughly. Damon felt his tongue demanding entrance into his mouth, and in his heightened state of bliss, he granted it to the older vampire, feeling his tongue pentrate the depths of his mouth while his wandering hands explored his chest.

With a moan of contentment, Damon wrapped his legs around Klaus' waist, and he carried both their weights over to the bed behind them, and pulled away from the kiss before he had the opportunity to pin him down. Damon unhooked himself from Klaus' waist, reciving one last smoldering kiss before both vampires set about ridding themselves of their clothing.

Within minutes, the rest of their articles of clothing were in a frenzied mess, scattered about the floor, and their lips were once again engaged in a battle of power and control. Damon was loosing, and knew he would never win, but he couldn't care less, he never went down easily. Warmth spread through his entire body, and he squirmed, slowly slipping away from sanity. He groaned into Klaus' mouth, as his arousal decided to make itself known in that moment.

Klaus grinned against his lips, and pulled Damon closer to him, snaking his hands down his bare back, lightly running his fingernails over the skin. Damon gasped as he felt a shooting trail of chills brush against his nerve-endings, and tried to get away from them, but only pressed himself - and co-incidentally, revealed his arousal - further into Klaus' body, which, Damon concluded, was _exactly_ what he wanted him to do.

Damon grunted as he was pushed back roughly onto the bed, contact tearing between them as his legs rested over the edge. Klaus held him down with one hand, and his eyes were blazing with triumph. Through erratic and irregular breaths, Damon took in the sight of the man above him, and he realised just how formidable Klaus really was, and how strong his power over him was.

A lust-filled gaze trailed over his naked body as Klaus brought his hands to rest on his shoulders, and he pressed himself against his aching manhood. Damon groaned - albeit in undeniable pleasure - but it was exactly what Damon was hoping Klaus _wouldn't_ do. He didn't want him to see how aroused he was, not to mention it was because of him in the first place, but the chuckle that resonated around the room told him that Klaus had known long before their bodies had been pressed against each other.

"Mmm, if I'd known how exictable you are, Damon, I would have done this _days_ ago." Klaus teased him, and Damon couldn't answer him because a groan of pleasure had snuck up on him when Klaus gently rocked against him. Damon moaned, his hands tightening into fists, creasing the perfect sheen of cream bed covers he was pressed onto. Klaus grinned at him, and disappeared from his line of vision. Damon couldn't figure out what was going on, until he felt a familiar burning sensation on his inner thigh.

Damon's vision blurred rapidly, but he wasn't as deterred by the pain as he should have been, which was no easy feat from a vampire, especially since Damon's first bite was un-healed. The younger vampire slowly lost his grasp on reality once more as he felt Klaus kissing his way back up to his chest. He could do nothing but lay there and absorb the pleasure as it washed over him in hot waves.

The very thought was humiliating. But humilatingly fitting. The world's most deadliest creatures in a match for dominance, yet Klaus was winning. He was winning with every single passing second his venom burned through Damon's body. He hated it, but could do nothing about it. it was ironic; every single being in the world feared both him and Klaus, yet Klaus seemed to have this uncanny ability to render he completely and utterly submissive with a single, smoldering stare.

Damon zoned back to reality as the feel of Klaus' fingers stroking over his bare thigh made him squirm in earnest. The sheets of the bed underneath him were wet from a mixture of sweat and arousal. Damon knew Klaus was up to something - and oddly he had no objection to it - he suspected Klaus was going tease him into oblivion until he cracked into pieces and gave in to him, begging him to give Damon what, paradoxically, they both wanted.

Damon's eyes automatically opened themselves as Klaus' fingers stopped stroking his skin halfway up his body, having missed the minimal contact. He wanted Klaus, and he would take anything he could get at this point. Klaus scanned him over with piercing eyes, and his body heated up instantly. Klaus smirked, realising that he was the causing of Damon's undoing once more. Damon's breath was getting more and more shallow, all sounding desperate, racked with an undertone of desire. Klaus' gaze became hungry, and he chuckled softly.

"Back to Earth, are we love?" His husky voice sent chills down Damon's spine, causing him to physically twitch from the shiver that streaked down his body. Klaus gave a satisfied looking smile, and shifted forwards so his body was hovering over Damon's. He didn't know if it was the werewolf venom pumping through his body making him delirious, or if it was aching need, but he wanted every inch of Klaus' body. At long last, a glimmer in Klaus' eyes made itself known, telling Damon that things were about to get _rough._

And rough it was. Klaus' lips descended on Damon's, the kiss between them was nothing if not passionate, but it were also aggressive, bringing out the animals inside of them. Blood stained the sheets in mere seconds and tangled around their bodies while Damon was writhing in pain. He moaned into the kiss as Klaus teasingly ground himself against him and pressed his hands onto his chest.

"Keep squirming like that Damon, and I might just lose every-" Damon closed his eyes and made a low, purring noise deep in his throat as Klaus sucked on his pulse point. He ran his tongue gently over the bite he had left, and Damon whimpered quietly. "-Single-" Klaus kissed his cheek and Damon was growing more and more frustrated. "-Inch of self-control I have."

"Well I lost it ten minutes ago." Damon countered, squirming underneath Klaus' body, wincing in pain as the sheets brushed against his bitten thigh and stung. He was surprised nothing drastic had happened to him - although he suspected it was down to the adrenaline conquering it - few _seconds_ after the first time Klaus had bit him made him delrious and gave him a pounding headache. "So can you just-"

"Have some paitence." Klaus pressed a finger to his lips and Damon scowled, debating on whether to bite it to prove how desperate he was. He gasped against it as Klaus began to lazily run it along his lower lip. "It's un-gentlemanly to beg." Damon groaned out of exasperation, over-exaggerating it. Klaus chuckled at him, clearly thrilled with having Damon in the palm of his hand.

"Klaus, please..." Damon knew he was begging for more than one reason, and so did Klaus, but Damon didn't care. The hybrid bites were like he was on fire, and he was. From a mixture of Klaus' venom coursing through his bloodstream, and a burning desire for Klaus to be inside him.

"But, on the other hand, hearing you moan my name like that..." Klaus' voice trailed off, and before Damon knew what was happening, his back arched up involuntarily, bending his spine to an unnatural position - one he'd only ever felt centuries ago when he was with Elias - and he yelled out in a mixture of surprise and pain in his lower half. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists, hissing in discomfort. Klaus gave a single thrust, and Damon lurched upwards, unintentionally sinking his teeth into Klaus' shoulder.

His blood flowed into his mouth, and Damon felt his fangs lengthen and his eyes close. He began drinking, and it sent him into a wild frenzy. He wanted more and more with every passing second the steaming liquid streamed down his throat. Damon felt Klaus rest a hand on his back, steadying him. His blood tasted delicious from a glass, but Damon was sure it tasted like liquid _heaven_ from his jugular.

The blood began to take effect at once, and Damon felt his skin sewing itself back together and he felt a bright light shining inside him. He felt rejuvenated - all his aches and pains were gone. Relucantly, he pulled away from Klaus' neck, and allowed him to push him back down onto the mattress.

"There." Klaus purred, resting his forehead against Damon's as his wound healed. "Good as new." He ran his fingers over the bitemark on his neck, and slipped a hand between them to run over the one on his thigh. Damon squirmed as Klaus grabbed his shaft and began moving his hand along with his thrusts.

Moans poured from Damon's lips, and Klaus stared down at him with a smirk, groaning quietly in pleasure himself. It was almost like he knew that Damon craved more and more the deeper he thrust inside him. It was a familiar sensation, but exhilarating all the same. When Klaus hit a spot inside him that made him cry out, his hands flew up to his back and slashed a bloody trail in the skin.

"Harder..." Damon moaned through clenched teeth, heavily breathing against Klaus' neck.

Klaus cupped Damon's face with his spare hand, and linked their gazes together. He was giving him a predatory smirk. Klaus started placing steamy kisses and nips on the softer skin of Damon's throat, already reddened from his earlier treatment. "Mmm. You have no idea what you just got yourself into." Damon's hips bucked up and he let out a choked scream as Klaus slammed into him with alot more force than before. Damon moaned and gasped with each powerful thrust. Every single nerve in his body was tingling as Klaus' other hand relentlessly worked to bring him release.

"Hey, c'mon, keep it down, dammit!" A man's gruff voice yelled from the next room, accompanied by the sound of his fist banging against the wall. Damon bit down on his lower lip to hide his whine of disappointment as the burning ebbed away from his body. Klaus looked less than impressed too - flustered, almost - but looked like he was going to start laughing any second. "Please, _please_ shut that off... jeez..." The man groaned, it was apparent he wasn't alone.

A chair shuffled inside the room while a light switch was flicked, and Klaus stilled, waiting for a sign that they could continue without being disturbed. Damon threw his head back in frustration, letting out a groan. He was completely unsatisfied. If he ever found out who those people in that room were, he would make them his next meal.

"Dean..." The second man in the room spoke up, sounding slightly agitated and nervous. "You should sit down..." He advised. Damon strained his ears to hear the footsteps, and the man - apparently called Dean - _finally_ moved away from the wall. He squirmed and slumped against the mattress, feeling extremely hot and bothered.

"_You_ sit down!" Dean growled to the other man. Damon looked up at Klaus, and he was smiling with an amused twinkle in his eyes. He kissed him shortly, resuming his fast pace and previous rythmn. Damon sunk his teeth into his bottom lip, trying to stifle the sounds that he knew would come out of his mouth.

"Silly humans, they only wish they could have the energy to do things like this." Klaus shook in head in distate, giving a brief, murderous glance at the wall opposite him. Damon groaned in relief as he felt the familar build-up of heat in his stomach as Klaus' hand worked him simultaneously with his thrusts.

"For them, that kind of stuff only exists when they're reading about Christian and Ana." Damon panted breathlessly, allowing his eyes to roll to the back of his head as Klaus lavished kisses on his neck. "And I can't picture you as Christian, for one you're not a creep like he is." He crinkled his nose in disgust. He knew it was only a book character, but it was completely unrealistic.

"And I could never picture you as Ana." Klaus countered, pausing in his kisses to speak. It didn't come as a surprise to Damon that Klaus had heard of that book, it was everywhere you would most expect it. Damon had even seen an old couple in their sixties reading it at the Grill once. The thought made him cringe. "You're nowhere _near_ that innocent." Klaus purred. "Well, you won't be when I'm done with you." He stated with a wicked smirk.

"Is that a promise?" Damon challenged him in-between gasps. Klaus responded with a smooth thrust, adapting to a much faster rythmn that would have undoubetedly shattered Damon's hips if he was human. With some effort needed behind it, he reached up and kissed the man above him, pulling him back down with him.

Klaus chuckled into his mouth as he swallowed every single gasp Damon made. The younger vampire weaved his fingers into Klaus' hair, relaxing into the impossibly fast rythmn that was making his body teem with life. Klaus broke away from him, and drifted his tongue down Damon's throat, stopping at the center of his chest.

Damon squeezed his eyes shut and moaned as Klaus' lips took one of his nipples into his mouth, biting and sucking with his teeth while the other was lesuirely rolled between Klaus' thumb and index finger. That simple action pushed him ever-closer to his release and forced his body off the bed, plastering itself to Klaus' mouth. Damon felt like a tight cord was being knotted around his stomach and he was being pushed closer and closer towards the edge.

Klaus' hot breath was by his ear as he quickened his rythmn once more, throwing Damon head-first into his climax. He screamed and his release shot through him, taking control of his body, making him shake. A few thrusts after, Klaus followed, growling in his bliss. Damon slowly opened his eyes, seeing Klaus looking at him, and his lips twitched into a tired smile.

"That was amazing." Klaus murmured, and Damon could only nod to convey his agreement. His muscles were becoming pleastantly numb, and his heart-rate was slowing to a steady rythmn, he was completely spent. He leaned up and his lips connected with Klaus' once more. It was a short kiss, but passionate all the same. Damon fell backwards onto the bed, his eyes closing without his consent. He fought with them, but the more he fought, the more tired he became.

"Seems like I've tired you out." Klaus stated, running his index finger down the column of Damon's throat, and he shivered pleastantly. "Just sleep for a while." Damon was about to protest, and say that he was fine, but Klaus could see right through him. "I compelled everyone to stay away from this room, remember?"

"So _that's_ why the sex-deprieved men didn't come busting down our door." Damon grinned sleepily, nuzzling into Klaus' open arms. They formed a protective haven around him, stroking his hair fondly, and Damon closed his eyes, allowing tiredness to take him over.

~ooOOoo~

Sometime later, although he couldn't pinpoint how much had passed since he closed his eyes and melted into the body his already craved once more, Damon slowly felt himself coming to. His entire body was drugged with a sweetness he had never felt before, it was like sunlight was streaming from his body.

"Damon...?" Klaus' voice was brushing the outer edge of Damon's sleepy reviere, prodding gently at the hazy bliss that surrounded him, while Klaus' hand gently shook Damon's shoulder. Damon laid still, his eyelids too heavy to move. "Wakey, wakey." Klaus sang. Damon moaned softly, refusing to wake up. Klaus sighed in irritation, and Damon pictured his lips pursing as he thought about what to do next. Damon laid still as a rustle was heard, he couldn't fathom what it was. Klaus was most likely getting-

All of a sudden, hard blows rained down on his body. Damon's eyes shot open, and he threw his hands up in front of his face. He squinted through them, and saw Klaus - who was already dressed - whacking him with a pillow. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" The blows stopped momentarily, and Klaus smirked at him, having sucessfully got him up.

"Klaus what the-" Damon was cut off as a grunt of pain escaped his lips after Klaus whacked him again, this time in the stomach. He fell back onto the bed, gasping for air. He looked up at Klaus, who was chuckling evilly at him. He walked towards the side of the bed, and tenderly ran his hand through his hair, trailing his fingers down his cheek.

"Oh, poor baby." Klaus didn't sound sorry at all, and continued to let his hand explore Damon's skin, nearing the base of his neck, but before it got to the hem of the sheet that covered his body, it trailed upwards, repeating the same, soft carressing pattern over Damon's face. Damon moaned quietly and shivered under Klaus' touch, not once did their gaze break.

He groaned out of the blue as he felt his lungs working overtime to get air back into his body, and he knew Klaus must be strong. The pillow he had used as a makeshift weapon wasn't even that big, and was extremely soft. "Ugh, you winded me with a _pillow_!" He huffed, sitting up. The sheets slipped down his chest - the sweat from a few hours ago had dried off - and Damon felt his body flush with unbearable heat. Klaus wasn't even trying to hide the fact that he was staring.

Before his hand could pass over his lips and make him shudder once more, Damon caught the relentless hand gently between his fingers, slowly pulling it away from his skin. Klaus watched him with a slightly bewildered expression on his face, but remained silent as Damon linked and un-linked their fingers, lightly stroking the skin of the hand that had claimed him in more than one way.

Damon felt his eyes close at a familiar, feather-light touch down the side of his face. He caught that hand too, and Klaus chuckled softly at him as he continued to study his hands, touching them, stroking them. Everything felt surreal, being in this hotel room with Klaus, even him... _everything_. Damon desperately wanted to make sure nobody was playing with his mind as a cruel joke. If anyone was, he would kill them. It didn't matter who they were, he would kill them.

"Mmm, what are you doing?" Klaus asked him tenderly like he was observing a small, curious child, coming to sit next to him on the bed. Damon shuffled up to make room for him, and felt somewhat elated when he felt the bed sink under Klaus' weight.

"Making sure you're real and not a sick sexual fantasy." He said without looking up.

"If this was a fantasy, you wouldn't be tired, you'd be begging me for more." Klaus' voice burned with the promise of heat and passion as his hand gently grasped Damon's chin, bringing it up so their eyes could meet. Damon instantly felt his body heat up, and the sheets stick even more to his skin.

"If I wasn't real, would I be able to do this?" He was pushed back roughly as Klaus' hand found it's way to his chest. Damon found himself staring up at Klaus' mysterious eyes, and he was squirming as his body became alive, feeling the presence of the man he craved above all else as he dominated him. "Or this?" Klaus kissed his neck softly, and Damon's eyes closed as a moan fell from them. "Or this?" Damon felt Klaus' breath get closer and closer to his lips, and had to fight his knee-jerk reaction to grab him and kiss him hard. Klaus' upper lip pressed gently against Damon's lower lip, and he tilted his chin even more, removing the last bit of space between them-

_Bzzzt... _

_Bzzzt... _

_Bzzzt... _

"Every bloody time." Klaus' lips and severely agitated breath fanned over Damon's lips and they brushed together as he growled low in his throat. Damon scowled, equally annoyed, as his phone kept buzzing. He sighed in irritation - cursing the day phones were invented - and was about to go and get his jeans, when he realised Klaus still had it in his pocket after Elena phoned him in the woods earlier. _Ruining __**another **__moment... _Damon growled mentally.

"I wouldn't be at all surprised if it's Elena again." He said over the buzzing. "It's in your pocket." He told him, nodding over to the bulge in Klaus' pocket.

"And I'm going to take great pleasure in ripping her to shreds." The hybrid's eyes glowered angrily as he delved into his pockets. "Then I will heal her, so I can do it over, and over again." He smiled, and Damon desperately wished he would. That way, she would literally _feel_ the pain she'd caused him. He was sure Matt felt like that sometimes too...

"Oh I'm with you on that one." Damon smirked, as Klaus handed him his phone. He had no doubt on whether it was Elena. She was really becoming a thorn in his side, _what_ was so important that she had to keep distracting him and ruining - although she didn't know, how could she? - things between him and Klaus. He checked the message she had sent him, and a scowl marked his face.

.

From: _Elena_

Message: _Where are you? We need to talk._

~ooOOoo~

**(A/N) Jeez, that Elena certainly knows how to ruin the Klamon moments, doesn't she? But I have a very vaild reason for ending it there, you'll see why. Maybe. Review with your thoughts, and I hope you all liked the Klamon moments - what about the lil' moment in the hotel room? Huh, huh? XD - Damon needed a distraction from Mystic Falls' Scooby gang. **

**I apologise if this seemed too long, but at least it was time well spent, eh? :-P And congrats to anyone who can spot the inter-show cross I did. Well done if you get it right. **


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N) Hi guys, this chapter's out at last! Things have been really hectic for me lately, and yeesh, talk about bad writer's block. But I hope that's all okay, it's better to have a late update than no updates at all, right?**

**So, last chapter was all that Klamon goodness, and then Elena (frigging cock-blocker of the year) texted Damon. This picks off from there, and I hope you guys like it, and review. Let's aim for more than eighty, because I really want to get more than 100 before this story ends. I'd say 200, but there ain't no way I'd get that many reviews, I'm not **_**that**_** good.**

**But thanks to everyone who did review the last chapter and have waited patiently, and to Haru Maru Salvatore (if you're reading this) I missed your review for the last chapter, but don't worry if you were busy, I get it. :-)**

**Enjoy guys.**

~ooOOoo~

"_Love, hate, such a fine line_..." - Katherine Pierce.

.

.

From: _Elena_

Message: _Where are you? We need to talk._

.

Damon held his phone in his hand, holding tightly, amazed he hadn't crushed it. He was unsure of how long he had been staring at the text from Elena, but his eyes were burning and the words were engraving themselves into his retinas. What could possibly be so important to Elena that she felt the need to be so damn persistent? But he wasn't so reluctant about going back this time, he had a bone to pick with her, and he was going to pick at it until nothing was left.

He began typing a response back, but he felt Klaus take his phone from him, sliding it out from his tightly clenched hand. Damon watched his expression as he looked at the text, he couldn't place it, but it definitely seemed like annoyance. "No, you really don't." He pressed a button and handed Damon his phone, the text now deleted.

"Klaus..." Damon's voice trailed off as he placed his phone on the bedside table. He tried to think of something to say, but he couldn't, and he felt uneasiness rise in his stomach. He never liked leaving _anything_ unfinished when it came to Klaus, it made him feel small and inferior, but Klaus himself didn't though. It was his power over him.

"I just want to show you something." Klaus reassured him softly, his features then contorted into a sour look that Damon knew all too well. "Then you can go back to _Elena_." He hissed out her name like it was vervain, and Damon couldn't help the devilish grin that rolled onto his face. Klaus was getting riled up over a woman the two of them could easily rip to shreds.

"You're jealous again." He snickered, and Klaus did _not_ look impressed with him. Damon was barely resisting the urge to stick his tongue out at him, he loved it when Klaus was riled up. The more riled up he was, the more rough he was. And that, Damon concluded, was exactly what he needed. No more making sorority girls scream, now it was him who was being the one made to scream.

"Just put some clothes on and meet me outside." Klaus ordered. Damon smirked to himself in satisfaction, and Klaus rolled his eyes, sliding off the bed and walking out of the room. His fists were clenched, and he was holding himself in a manner completely different to his own.

"Jealous!" Damon called after him as he left the room, grinning when he didn't receive a reply back, confirming his suspicions. He threw the covers off of him, and bent down to pick his shirt up off the floor, but he felt his muscles straining to pull themselves apart from the knots they were tangled in. A shower was definitely in order.

He walked into the bathroom, fighting the urge to wince as every step he took ached - he _knew_ that wasn't all that Klaus could do to him - and shut the door behind him. He hung a towel over the rail opposite the shower, and stepped inside. He pulled the curtain across, and turned the shower on, being welcomed with the spitting flow of hot water.

He sighed in relief as the water pelted down onto his naked body, massaging his body with some shower gel, simultaneously kneading the knots out of his body, grunting in pain as he reached a particularly stubborn one. The soapy lather flowed down the plug-hole, and Damon found himself thinking about how the shower paled in comparison with the rest of the hotel. The shower back in the boarding house was better than this, and the water didn't stop and spit either.

"What happened to just getting some clothes on and meeting me outside?" He heard Klaus' voice and grinned, seeing his silhouette through the shower curtain. Damon got noticeably hotter as he thought about Klaus' leering gaze on him, and Damon the shampoo to distract himself. He rubbed it into his hair, allowing the water to wash over him once more.

"I don't hear you complaining." Damon countered smartly, half-wishing Klaus would join him, and whole-heartedly wishing that he would stop getting so flustered around the Hybrid and give him the satisfaction he craved from him.

"I'm not." The smirk in Klaus' voice was louder than the actual words, and made Damon chuckle. He turned the dial and the shower stopped. He reached a hand through the shower curtain to get the towel, but he couldn't find it. He had his suspicions. He poked his head through the shower curtain, holding it over his body.

Klaus was standing there, smirking as he held the towel away from him, twirling it around. "Ha-ha, funny." Damon chuckled dryly, smiling momentarily. He stuck a hand out, twitching his index finger. "Give it." He demanded.

Klaus' smirk remained on his lips. "If you want it you're gonna have to come and get it." Damon sighed, rolling his eyes and dropped the curtain. It fell back to its original position, and he stepped out of the shower, still dripping wet. Klaus' elevator eyes were back, scanning him thoroughly. "Well don't you look..." Klaus' stare became smouldering and he drew his bottom lip in between his teeth momentarily as he searched for a word. "... _Delicious_." His eyes glowered, and Damon was thankful he wasn't blushing.

Damon came and stood almost nose-to-nose with him, deliberately invading his personal space. He reached for the towel, but Klaus pulled it away with a playful glint in his eyes. "Klaus give me the towel." Damon grunted as Klaus pressed his hand onto Damon's bare chest, keeping him there while the towel was once again out of his reach.

"Hmmm, I don't know." Klaus' eyes glimmered and Damon grew frustrated, struggling against Klaus' hand. He was getting nowhere and Klaus was delighting over his struggles to get to a simple towel.

"Klaus..." His tone touched on whining, and he flashed Klaus his best puppy-dog eyes, growing angry as he had always sworn to use them as a last resort.

"Oh alright." Damon felt a small wave of inner triumph as Klaus slowly handed the towel to him, but it disappeared as quickly as it had came, when the fabric slipped through his fingers once again. He opened his mouth to protest, but he found himself pinned against the wall - shivering at the cold tiles - arms imbolized with Klaus' lips covering his in a viciously sweet kiss. Klaus' hands released Damon's arms and they immediately tangled into Klaus' hair, while Klaus' arms neared his hips.

Damon felt him wrap the towel around his waist and he chuckled. "There." Klaus brushed a few strands of hair off of Damon's face. "Now stop pouting." His thumb brushed against Damon's lower lip, and his nose scrunched up in indignation. He did not pout. Damon Salvatore did a lot of things, but pouting _was not _one of them, and it never would be either.

"I don't pout!" He was trying, and failing miserably, not to sound like a petulant child, Klaus just seemed downright amused, watching him with something similar to akin fascination.

"I beg to differ." Klaus smirked. Damon rolled his eyes, and pulled himself away from the wall, pushing past Klaus and walking back into the room. He bent down to find his boxers, ignoring the feeling of Klaus' eyes on him as he pulled them on. He thrust his legs into his jeans, and then found his shirt.

"Do I have time to change my mind about going somewhere?" Klaus asked, his eyes scanning his body once more. Damon chuckled and slipped his shoes on.

"So where _are _we going?" He asked.

"Come on." Klaus walked towards the door, holding it open for him. Damon smiled at the simple act of dying politeness, and stepped out into the hallway, letting Klaus take the lead. They passed the reception desk, and Damon chuckled at the dirty glare he gave the receptionist, silently delighting that Klaus could show his jealousy rather than hiding it.

They walked out of the hotel and onto the bustling street. Klaus lead him away from all the mainstream shops - Costa Coffee, New Look, Primark, etc - and Damon found himself walking down an alleyway. He was glad it was flooded with daylight, otherwise he would have bet that Klaus was taking him there to fool him into thinking that he was going to let him go. Damon had never been a fan of the possessive type, but on Klaus it was _hot_.

He snapped out of his thoughts as he felt a woman fall into his arms. Klaus was looking over at them, and Damon could swear his eyes were going _green_. He doubled back in his steps, and strode towards them. Damon quickly helped the woman to stand before she could realise that Klaus was behind her.

"Oh sorry, my bad." She apologised, bending down to pick up her purse. She looked at him, and Damon swallowed. She was giving him the look that many women gave him, and it was a look that Klaus was _not_ going to like. A smile spread across her face and Damon couldn't see Klaus anywhere. "Hey, you're really pretty, how about we-"

There was a sickening snap, and her lifeless body slumped forwards in his arms. Damon pushed her away, letting her fall on the ground, and he saw Klaus stood there with a satisfied look on his face.

"_Klaus_!" Damon wasn't too shocked that he had killed the woman for almost suggesting something to him - he had looked ready to _tear apart_ the receptionist back at the hotel for just looking at him - if anything he was actually glad. In its own twisted way, it showed that someone _did_ care about him.

"What?" Klaus asked nonchalantly, smirking like the Devil. "My hands slipped." He countered, and Damon snorted. That was the worst reason for a "my hand slipped" excuse ever.

"You may be the most jealous person I've ever known." He wasn't sure how he should feel about Klaus' jealousy. He would gladly tear apart anyone who made a move on him, and he could never remember anyone getting jealous over him like Klaus did. He saw nearly everyone else as a threat to him, and he hated threats.

"Come on." Damon rolled his eyes as their trek began again, and followed Klaus through the rest of the alleyway, coming out into an isolated path. Damon was beginning to get nervous - and he didn't do nervous - what could Klaus want to show him all the way out here? In the middle of nowhere?

Moments later, Damon saw the roof of an old-looking building rise up from across the path. It was abandoned, that much was obvious, but what interest Klaus had in an abandoned warehouse confused him.

Klaus pushed the door open, dust pouring from the frame while light flooded the darkened building. Damon thought about making a crack about a horror movie, but he decided against it. Klaus led him through what must have been the main room when the warehouse had been in use, and into another room. Rusted scaffolding propped the walls up, and Damon's thought about a horror movie crack was back with a vengeance as he saw three coffins residing in the corner.

"Oohh, and old abandoned warehouse. Creepy." Damon stated as Klaus came to a stop near the coffins, running a hand over one of them. "Oh and coffins, double creepy." He grinned as Klaus looked at him.

"Why was I sure you'd say something like that?" He shot back. "They aren't just coffins. They've been carrying my siblings around for the better part of a thousand years, minus Elijah of course." Klaus smiled, casting his eyes over the third coffin. Damon had no doubt Elijah was in there, but who were in the others?

"Siblings? With a "s"?" Damon asked, walking over to Klaus. "I thought Elijah was your only brother."

"No, I have two more, and _had_ two others." Klaus said, something unknown flashing in his eyes for a brief second. "Kol, Finn, and you know Elijah." He gestured to each of the three coffins, and Damon guessed that Rebekah - was that her name? - was still in Chicago, holding down the fort.

"What happened to the other two?" Damon asked, treading carefully on a delicate subject. Death of family was hard-hitting for some, some more than others.

"Aaron Mikaelson was my mother and father's firstborn child, but he died of the plague, so my parents fled to a new world, where my mother bore the rest of us. Elijah, Finn, me, Kol, Rebekah and then Henrik." Klaus explained.

"So where's Henrik?" Damon noticed the absence of what he presumed to be a fifth coffin, since Rebekah's made four.

"The village we were living in at the time was inhabited by werewolves, and one night Henrik and I snuck out to see them transform, and he got mauled to death." Damon couldn't stop the low growl in his throat, he hated werewolves with a passion. They had killed Rose, very nearly killed him, _twice_, yet Klaus was half-werewolf. Maybe it was just the fact that Klaus hadn't killed anyone close to him that prevented him from truly hating him, or maybe it was the fact that he drove him completely and utterly crazy. "I carried his body back to the village and his screams haunted me that night." Klaus' voice brought him back to Earth, stunning him to the point where any of his usual witty answers died on his tongue.

"Oh." Was all that came out of his mouth. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to carry Stefan's dead body, grey and decomposing, his eyes hollow and empty showing nothing. No emotion.

"It was horrible." Klaus admitted, leaving himself open and vulnerable for a spilt second before recovering. "But now the sight would have only thrilled me."

"So why are they daggered?" Damon cocked his head towards the coffins.

"Elijah is daggered because I promised to reunite him with our family, and I never go back on my word." Klaus' eyes glowered dangerously for a second and he opened the coffin showing Elijah's desiccated body. "Finn has been daggered for over nine-hundred years because of disagreements back in 1114 AD." Klaus opened a second coffin, revealing a grey-skinned man with curly brown locks dressed in period clothing. "I personally didn't dagger him, a band of vampire hunters - they called themselves The Five - did, and I just left it in him. I wasn't affected because of my werewolf side and I slaughtered each and every one of them."

"What about Kol?" Damon asked, assuming that was the last sibling left.

Klaus opened the coffin, and Damon was instantly struck with a feeling similar to a migraine mixed with indigestion. Kol looked like a younger version of Elijah, but that wasn't what got him feeling like this, he seemed to know him from somewhere, but he couldn't place it. "I daggered him over a century ago in New Orléans over some disagreements on running the place." Klaus looked at him briefly, and Damon realised he had been staring, and averted his eyes. "Why are you looking at him like that?" He asked.

"He seems really familiar, like I know him from somewhere..." Damon's voice trailed off as he desperately tried to remember, but he kept coming up blank. Maybe he had been compelled by this Kol to forget him? Or maybe they had met in an era that Damon was trying hard to block out because of its bad fashion trends and haircut choices?

"You might do, New Orléans is a rather large town." Klaus said. "Kol used to frequent a bar called _B__illy's_-"

"My best friend Will owned that bar back in the 1970's." Damon cut in. "He would agree to let me feed on people if I snagged their I.D's." He explained. Maybe Kol had been someone he'd partied with or gave a fake I.D to. The idea wasn't too big a stretch. "He gave them to vampires who were looking for a new life or an escape plan. He gave Katherine one once, Angelina Guttmann, I think." Damon briefly licked his lips, now _she_ had been an exciting feed.

"Ah, Katerina." Klaus looked at him in sour remembrance, and Damon couldn't blame him. The bitch screwed him over more than Elena, but she was coming up to be a close, _very_ close, second. "The first Petrova Doppelganger." He couldn't help but notice the slight sigh of disdain in Klaus' voice.

"Why'd you say it like that?" Damon asked.

"She wasn't the first, as many believe." Klaus said. _Great, there's more. _Damon thought dryly. "There was a predecessor and originator of the Petrova line." His voice brought Damon back to Earth. "Tatia." He said. "Elijah and I had fallen in love with her, and were going through a similar situation as you and Stefan were with Elena."

"Did Tatia play around with you both?" Damon asked bitterly, expecting it to be a Doppelganger curse and they were forever fated to never make their minds up, whether the object of their affections were vampires, werewolves, witches or humans.

"No." Klaus' answer threw him off guard, and if anything made him all the more bitter. So it was just Katherine and Elena who liked to string men along and play with their feelings? _Brilliant_. Damon growled internally. "She dated us both, of course, but never at the same time, she never led us on, or tried to change us from the men we were. In the end, she decided she loved us both equally, and couldn't make a choice. The three of us remained friends, and if anything my brotherly bond with Elijah was stronger than ever." Klaus explained, then his eyes darkened. "For a while." He added.

"When does the turning into vampires come into this?" Damon asked.

"My mother saw Tatia as a nuisance - a blot upon the Mikaelson family name if you will - because Elijah and I had argued over her for a short time, even tried to kill each other, and she slaughtered her." Damon did a double-take, he could never imagine his Father slaughtering Katherine just for playing with his son's emotions, but being a vampire he could understand, before he had met her that was.

"Upon our transformation, all of us - except my mother - drank goblets of wine laced with her blood, and then my father drove his sword through our chests." Klaus said, and Damon nearly winced, it was a very painful way to die when it came to a person's chest. He would know. "When we awoke, we were in transition. My first kill had triggered my werewolf gene, and I became extremely violent and unstable, so my mother placed the Hybrid Curse on me to stop me from ravaging the entire village. I felt betrayed however, once I realised the truth about my parentage, and tore her heart from her chest." He looked down, seemingly ashamed, but Damon couldn't see a single hint of it in his eyes.

"Wow, and _I _thought I had issues with my family, what with Dad sending me to war over and over again." Damon sneered as he thought of his Father, always threatening and beating him, putting him down while he favoured Stefan and spoiled his little golden-boy. "Where's your Dad?" Damon took in the absence of another coffin. Maybe he wasn't daggered?

"Rotting in a cemetery in Charlotte." Klaus said emotionlessly. "A witch named Abby Bennett entombed him when he came to Mystic Falls to try and find me." _Bennett?_ Damon thought. _A relative of Bonnie's, maybe? _He could easily come to that conclusion, Emily had, had a rather large family before she had been burned at the stake.

"My father hated vampires too, only he wasn't as extreme." Damon blocked out the muffled screams of the pained vampires as they were loaded into the truck, the truck that Katherine was supposed to be in all along. "He just made a plan to burn all the vampires they had caught in the Church, shot me and Stefan after we tried to free Katherine from going in there, but the sneaky bitch escaped herself." He growled.

Klaus looked like he wanted to say something else, but Damon's phone rang, echoing in the spacious room. Damon sighed in irritation, and delved into his pockets, silencing the call almost immediately. He knew who it was without even looking at the caller I.D. It was the one woman who he was trying his hardest to avoid.

"Elena?" Klaus guessed.

"Yep." Damon nodded, putting his phone back into his pocket. "She can wait a while longer, if she's found out about my "feedings" then I may as well enjoy freedom while I still have it." He never used to be as cynical as he was, but when it came to Elena Gilbert - the Mystic Falls' martyr - cynical became a way of life for him.

"I just can't understand why she thinks every vampire should fight their true nature." Damon was growing frustrated again, nearly punching the scaffolding before he decided against it, seeing as the whole building may have crumbled. "I wish she'd told that to you, then you'd rip her head off." He spat.

"I wouldn't actually." Klaus said slowly, and Damon gave him a puzzled look, although the Hybrid was speaking before he could say anything. "I'd tear her apart limb from limb and then eat her." His eyes glowed amber for a split second, and Damon grinned hellishly.

"Sounds tempting." He whispered. "And do-able." He flashed a suggestive eyebrow dance towards Klaus, who chuckled at him. Damon's ringtone blared throughout the warehouse once again, and he growled out in frustration. Did Elena have no patience!?

"Hold on." He was speaking through gritted teeth as he reached for his phone a second time.

"That was a very short wait." Klaus pointed out.

"She's converted to _calling_ now, buzzing I could take, but not a ringtone over and over again." Damon responded, holding his phone away from him, readying to unleash the fires of Hell down the line into Elena's ear. "I curse the day these things were invented." He sneered, fighting the urge to crush it into pieces. He definitely had to change his number after this.

He pressed the green button and held the phone to his ear. "What!?" He snapped as soon as the line cleared, and he heard Elena's confused gasp from the other end.

"Damon where are you?" She asked. Her voice seemed urgent and soft at the same time, so Damon could rule out being discovered, but what else did she have to call him about? If she and Stefan broke up, he would probably be the last person to know, or Elena would be coming to him for comfort like he always did.

"Elena how nice to hear your voice." Damon said sarcastically, although Elena didn't acknowledge it, either not hearing it, or completely ignoring it. "I was out and about." He was vague in his answer, she didn't - more like _couldn't_ - know any more than that.

"Didn't you get my message?" She asked. _Yes Elena. _Damon thought in annoyance. _Several of them._ "I really need to talk to you." She was starting to sound like a desperate five year-old after cookies.

"Oh alright, I give." Damon said, and he saw Klaus roll his eyes from across the room. "I'll be at the boarding house soon." He hung up, not giving Elena the last word. "Sorry, you can only keep a dog gnawing on an old bone for so long." He apologised.

"No matter." Klaus began walking over to him. "I can wait." Damon could tell by his tone that he was going to have an extremely hard time doing so, and an even harder time refraining from ripping Elena's head off because she was occupying him.

"Even extremely old Hybrids need to have manners sometimes." He teased him.

"Doesn't mean I can't show you what I'm going to do to you when you get back." Klaus' voice dropped an octave, becoming sultry as he stopped in his tracks, and wrapped his arms around Damon's waist, in turn his went around Klaus' neck. He leaned in towards him, getting closer to his lips, but instead of kissing him, Klaus pressed a finger to Damon's lips, barring any contact between them. "Ah." He chuckled as he saw Damon's confused expression. "I said I'd _show_ you." Klaus pointed out.

"I think I preferred it when you were jealous." Damon muttered, unlinking himself from Klaus and turning around to walk back through the two rooms and out of the warehouse. Klaus' fingers gripped onto his wrist and pulled him backwards.

"Are you sure about that?" He whispered dangerously, briefly nuzzling into his neck. Damon chuckled and Klaus released him. He had a long walk back.

Soon Damon was walking back down the dwindling path, and through the alleyway, not giving the dead woman's body a second glance. It felt strange to be walking back without Klaus, he felt hollow, empty. He wasn't one of those people who forever needed someone by their side, it just felt strange because they had been together all day yesterday, and now he was heading back to the boarding house, his home, but it was his home that seemed so foreign and distant.

On the drive back, Damon was praying for a disastrous accident to be blocking his path, or a string of stubborn traffic lights halting him so he could take as long as possible, but he had no such luck. The road was clear, with his car being the only car on it, and all the traffic lights were bright green, glaring at him as if they were laughing spectators. To his dismay, the boarding house was soon in sight, and he was rolling into the driveway.

"Elena?" He called once he was inside, shutting the door behind him. "Stefan?" He tried once he got no response. Damon stepped into the parlour and saw empty bottles of liquor laying on their sides, while others were half-empty, the contents unfinished and filled into various tumblers. He made note that his bourbon and usual glass hadn't been touched, so at least the person who had drunk, or attempted to drink, all of this, respected him to a certain degree. "Alright, who had the drinking party when I was gone!?" He yelled out in frustration.

"Oh, you're back." He turned as he heard Stefan's voice, slurring slightly as he emerged from behind the liquor cart. So it was Stefan, but why would Stefan be drinking this much? Damon instantly grew worried, was he back on human blood? No, this seemed different, and so did Stefan, but not in the no humanity sense of things. His emotions were exposed and he looked incredibly vulnerable.

"Yes, her Majesty squealed and I reluctantly obliged." Damon responded. He looked at Stefan once more, and could see there was something wrong, he looked physically exhausted and dragged down by something, but what Damon couldn't pinpoint. His eyes were circled with redness and shining with unshed tears. As soon as Damon saw the dried tear tracks, he became curious. "What's with you? You look like someone's killed all the Golden Retriever's in the world." He attempted humour to lighten the situation, but he could see that it wasn't going to help this time.

"Elena broke up with me." The words flew from Stefan's mouth so suddenly, that Damon almost didn't have time to process them, but he did. The perfect love, the love that he had, had to risk everything for when he was planning to give himself over to a Klaus that he hated, was gone. Dissamated into nothing and discarded like yesterday's rubbish.

"What?" Damon was anything if not surprised. How could Elena go from being a stubborn child to rescue Stefan, to breaking up with him and driving him to a drinking binge in the space of a few days. That woman infuriated him, and _this_ crossed the line more than anything. Nobody could hurt Stefan, not even Damon in all his bravado would actually dream of it, any time he had, it had been to keep his mask from slipping. "Why?" He asked.

"Because of you." Stefan didn't seem angry, he didn't seem upset either, he just sounded like an emotionless, hollow shell of his younger brother. Damon thought for a split-second that Stefan had turned his humanity off, but if he had, he wouldn't be handling a break-up like this.

"What did I do?" Damon asked.

"I don't blame you Damon, I'm happy you get to be with someone you love." Stefan gave him a weak smile, and Damon shook his head rapidly. What had happened while he was gone?

"I am, but it's not her!" Damon was nearly yelling for reasons he couldn't understand.

"Who is it then?" Stefan looked up, surprised.

"It's-" Damon caught himself before he was about to say Klaus. "_Someone_." He winked at Stefan, hoping he wouldn't notice his slip-up. "Let's just say I'm batting for the opposite side for a while because Elena's constant Katherine-esque traits have led me to it." This was it, everything was coming out into the open now, and he didn't care.

"What are you talking about?" Stefan asked, and Damon nearly kicked over the sofa in frustration. He really had no idea, or he did and was just turning a blind eye so precious little Elena didn't throw a fit.

"She plays both of us around Stef, admit it, you saw it too." Damon said.

"Yeah, but-"

"There's no "yeah, but" about it." Damon cut him off, leaving him no room to say anything back. "We should have just gotten the hell out of here while we had the chance." He cursed violently under his breath. Elena really had ruined the pair of them, and he felt partially sorry for not realising it sooner and putting his own selfish infatuations before his own blood.

"I had to know her, Damon." Was Stefan's answer, just as quiet and reserved as he was looking. Elena must have broken his heart, and Damon knew it wasn't easy, but he _was_ stronger than Stefan in terms of recovery.

"No, Stef, you didn't." Damon rested a hand on Stefan's shoulder, feeling the awkward tension set in, but he wasn't going to do anything about it. "To you she was just Katherine again, if she wasn't you wouldn't have followed her around for months, or you wouldn't have left me out of the equation for ages so she wouldn't have any chance of falling for me." He said softly. "I wonder what she has to say about it." He angrily walked into the kitchen, hearing Elena's heartbeat and feeling oddly like the father who was telling his daughter off for not being responsible.

"There you are." She smiled once she saw him, and went to hug him, but he cleverly evaded her, playing it off like he was just leaning against the table.

"Here I am." His smile disappeared as quickly as it had been shown. "So what did you want to talk about? Heard you and Stefan broke up." He clenched his fists to stop himself from getting angry, but he couldn't help it. He could see Elena wasn't cut up over this at all, and to add insult to injury, she was looking like it was the best decision she ever made. Months ago, Damon would have agreed, now, he wasn't so sure.

Elena walked closer to him. "Well I was thinking about what you said, about me kissing you-"

"Hold up, _that's_ what you were thinking about!?" Damon's nails ground deep gouges into the oak finish on the table. Did she have selective hearing? Or was she so delusional that any piece of truth that reached her ears came across as a compliment or a shower of praise? Damon was having none of it, he was fed up and would make sure it sunk in. "None of the other stuff I said!?" He growled loudly.

"I didn't need to because it isn't true." Elena shook her head, and Damon snorted, pulling away from the table and pushing past her. She turned to face him, a look of shock and indignation on her face.

"Oh really?" He raised an eyebrow and tried to keep himself calm. "You're switching Salvatore's Elena, sound like someone familiar?" Damon was getting right down to business, striking were it would hurt the most, and where most of the hatred came from.

"Damon I-I thought you loved me..." Her voice trailed off and she looked more confused than ever, like she couldn't believe that he wasn't worshipping the ground she walked on and wasn't kissing her feet every time she made an oh-so-clever decision to benefit only her.

"Nope." Damon shook his head, ripping the plaster off quickly and harshly. Harsh was the best way when it came to Elena. "I did, but then I realised I didn't want a carbon copy of Katherine, so I've got someone else." He began flaunting his dirty little secret, without giving too much of it away.

Her expression instantly hardened, and she stood up straight, trying to make herself look all high and mighty, but Damon had a good hand span or two on her, so it was failing miserably. "Damon if you hurt anyone I'll-"

"You'll what, Elena?" He challenged her dangerously. What could she, a pathetic human, do to him? He was a creature of the night, and she was afraid of things that went bump in the night. "I couldn't hurt him if I tried anyway." Damon shrugged. It was the truth, no matter how much his ego wouldn't admit it, but Klaus was indestructible - an immortal wrecking ball almost.

"_Him_?" Elena's eyes narrowed and she folded her arms. "You're Gay again?" She asked, and Damon's jaw nearly dropped. She was going to lecture him about being bisexual? What was next? Drinking too much alcohol? He could feel the anger rising within him, and soon he would snap, and he could no longer be responsible for the consequences.

"I like to call it batting for the opposite team, but I'm happy, he's happy, and you are nowhere in sight." He spoke through gritted teeth, shifting on the spot to try and dispel some of his anger, but it wasn't going anywhere, if anything it was getting worse at the look Elena was currently giving him.

"Where's all this coming from Damon?" She asked, once again oblivious to her own mistreatment of him and his brother. "You and Stefan are both supposed to love me and protect me." Damon had to literally bite his tongue after she said that. She made it sound like it was a mandatory service and they had absolutely no say in the matter. She was just digging herself a deeper grave with every word that came out of her mouth.

"Well Stefan would probably take you back once he's done with _my_ alcohol. - Hey, paws off the bourbon buddy! It's older than the pair of us! - But I won't, because I'm done with being your pet to keep around on a leash." He snarled.

"What do you mean?" Elena asked softly. Damon hissed like hot water over a stove.

"Don't play dumb, you know exactly what it means." He spoke while clenching his fists exceptionally tight, so tight, his nails were cutting into his palms. "You accept my feelings for you whenever you want something, but when they become an inconvenience, you deny them and kick me to the curb."

"I only denied them because I didn't want to turn into Katherine." Elena said with a smile as if she was going to say it made everything okay, like it would erase every time he had broken his heart and rejected him, as if it would smooth over all the cracks between them and put all the water under the bridge. Nothing said by her could fix any of this.

"It's too late now!" He yelled at her, and she took several steps back as he advanced on her, driving her towards the table. "You are exactly like her, I doubt I'd be able to tell you both apart if you were stood next to each other. At least Katherine had the decency to cut ties with me - granted it sent me spiralling - but you've kept me around as a necessity to go to whenever Stefan isn't how you want him to be."

"Stop making me out to be like Katherine, I am not like Katherine!" She yelled back, and she may as well have stamped her foot and pouted out her lips, but it wouldn't have changed the facts. She was a little child whenever she didn't get her way. "Being confused about my feelings doesn't make me like _her_!" She seethed, and it still amazed Damon that she could go from loving him, to yelling at him in a single second.

"You weren't confused at all!" He countered knowingly. "You knew exactly what you were doing, which makes you _just_ like her. Every time Stefan didn't give you love, you came to me for comfort and protection, and when _I_ didn't listen to any of your pathetic plans - plans which always seem to have a high death count - you would run to him and get him to try and convince me."

"No I-"

"Stop making excuses, Elena. I've had it with you!" His words just kept spewing from his mouth and he made no effort to stop them, he had come too far to do so now. "You once told me that people die around me, which is true, only difference now is, the murderer is indirectly you most of the time."

She folded her arms and cocked her head to the side. "Like who?" She asked.

Damon smirked at her, and held up some fingers as he began counting people off. "Let's start the incredibly long list, shall we? Jenna, John, Isobel... Miranda and Grayson-"

"That is _not_ true!" There were tears brimming over in her eyes, and Damon knew the subject of her parents was a tender one, but if she hadn't been at that party - she had ran into him and he compelled her to forget about him - and fought with dear little Matty, then she and her parents wouldn't have been on that bridge, then Stefan wouldn't have had to save her, and none of this would have happened. He thought about that for a moment, he wouldn't have met Klaus...

"Yes it is Elena! I'm sick of you not facing reality! You want to keep deluding yourself, fine. Keep doing what you're doing and making innocent people die because everyone keeps you on such a pedestal and for some reason wants to move Hell and Earth to keep you safe." Damon was growling like a wild animal now, his anger unrestrained and dominating him. "Well I'm done being on Team Save Elena, because it's a joke, just like you."

"Damon-" Her tears spilled over her eyes and she sunk back down to the smaller form she had prior.

"No I'm being serious." Damon said mercilessly. "What is there that is _so_ special about you that everyone runs around like chickens with their heads cut off to save you whenever poor-little-damsel-in-distress Elena gets captured for some reason."

She sniffed, and then gathered herself, wiping under her eyes. "Damon, are you compelled?"

"I've told you this before, Elena, no I'm not." He smiled eerily at her, she her eyes widened. It was the cold, harsh truth that everyone else was too afraid to give her. "I'm just acting like this because I'm tired of fighting my true nature just so you can have a safe haven around you. You are not the center of the universe and I can guarantee everyone is fed up of having to constantly stick their necks out on the line for you."

Elena was silent, and her tears brewed up again, falling as the dam broke. Damon sneered at her. "Go ahead, stand there and cry, but it doesn't change the facts." He said. "You are a little fish trying to make the big ocean all about her, and you repeatedly keep playing around with me and my brother-"

"I'm not!" She yelled through her tears. "I love you! Not him!" Damon clenched his fists, knowing Stefan would be listening to everything. "And I'm sorry it took me so long to realise that, I'm sorry you got hurt, but I'm telling you that I love you and things are over with Stefan-"

Those words struck something inside Damon, and before he knew it, the beast inside him was raging, untamed and visible. "You know that's what she said, don't you?" He growled. It was like Katherine was in front of him, but he knew she wasn't, she had taken off once she had given him the werewolf bite cure. "You're no better than her!"

He felt the impact before he felt his face snap to the side. Blood rose in the cheek Elena had slapped - even after he expressly warned her not to the last time - and his chest was heaving with anger, his breath coming out in short, rapid bursts. He twisted his head around to face Elena, and her smug expression dropped once she saw the rage popping on his face. His eyes were hardened and his fangs were burning.

For once, he was going to go for the water. Damon snarled and there was a split-second of silence before Elena's terror-filled shriek penetrated the house as Damon's fangs tore into her neck. He bit down harder, and cupped a hand over her mouth, muffling her cries. If anything, they got louder. Damon wanted her to feel _pain_, at if that was at the expense of him feeling no pleasure from the feed, then so be it.

He pulled away harshly, leaving slivers of Elena's flesh hanging from the large, profusely bleeding gash on the side of her neck, and tangled one hand tightly into her hair, releasing her mouth and yanking her off the floor a few inches. She cried out in pain, and Damon quickly came to the conclusion that Stefan must have left, or else he would be trying to help her. Help the girl who broke his heart.

"Rule number one." He hissed in her ear, hearing her quickened heartbeat and panicked breaths as he held her at his mercy. "_Don't ever do that again_." He growled, cutting the message into her mind. "Rule number two: Nobody hurts my brother but me." He punctuated the last few words with rough twists to her hair.

"Damon that hurts, please stop!" She shrieked. her hands flying up to grab at his arm. Damon didn't care if her hair fell out from how tightly he was holding it, he was going to get through to her, no matter what it took.

"Shut up and listen to someone else for once in your life." He tightened his grip on her hair, twisting sharply, ignoring her cry of pain and the way her dainty hands beat against his arm, begging him to release her. He was done doing what she said. He lowered his mouth to her ear, dropping his voice to a dangerous whisper. "I'm _sick_ of all your bullshit, I'm sick of you playing with me, I'm sick of _you_."

Damon's face screwed up with all the hatred he was currently feeling for the squirming girl in his grip, and he tossed her to the ground without a second thought. She looked up at him with hurt and betrayal in her eyes, but he couldn't care less, and went on. "You _are _no better than Katherine, so you can rot in Hell." As Elena started to sob on the floor, Damon grinned spitefully.

He had never felt so _alive_.

~ooOOoo~

**(A/N) And how was **_**that**_** for a telling off? I'm sure Damon feels awesome, but there's a little more in the next chapter, I don't want to give away any spoilers. So review with your thoughts, and if any of you have been silent reading, I'd love to hear from you too, you don't have to stay silent you know. ;-)**

**And on another note, who loves jealous/possessive Klaus? He's so fun to write. Oh, and I don't know why I put the towel bit in the beginning, but it seemed to want to be in there.**


	6. Chapter 6

**(A/N) Hey there everyone, remember me? Sorry I took so long, but the chapter's here now, and that's all that matters, right? And I want to say a big thanks to all of you, because thanks to your awesome reviews, I now have 102! That's an all-time record for me, so thanks a lot. :-D**

**This chapter was so much fun for me to write, and I think you'll find out why near the end. It's also the longest one (so far) that I've written at 23 pages on a word document. O_o**

**Without further ado, here's the next chapter. Enjoy, alert, favourite, and review with what you liked/thought I could improve on, etc, etc. :-)**

~ooOOoo~

"_I can't be what other people want me to be. What she wants me to be_." - Damon Salvatore.

.

.

Damon moaned in appreciation as the boy's blood flowed - willingly at best - down his throat. He wrapped his arms around the teenager, both of them swaying in time with the sensuous music playing lightly in the background.

After yesterday's events, he needed an outlet, and since Stefan had drank his way through nearly half of his bourbon supply, he decided he would have a buffet. By some stroke of luck he had managed to find a college that was done with exams, and a bunch of teenagers that were looking for fun in the sun. They got fun, but it wasn't in the sun.

They had been far too easy to compel - and the security guard had been no match for his superior speed and strength - but Damon wasn't one to complain, they all tasted delicious and were the best dancers he'd seen in a while. Everyone had become wild party animal's in the few hours they had been with him, and nearly all their clothes were scattered around the floor, but that was what he wanted, and he had the power to bend them to his will and feel no remorse about it.

There was one thing that would strike anyone as odd or segregation - there were no brunettes. Damon had made a rule to stay away from them, no matter how delicious one of them looked. Elena had given him enough trouble to last an eternity and color his views on women who looked like her, or just had the same hair color. It sounded ridiculous, but Damon didn't care.

He pulled away from the teenager, having drank his fill, and held him close for a few minutes, breathing in his scent and allowing him to catch his breath. He had no idea a college boy could taste so good, and to find one without alcohol or drugs in his system was an even bigger rarity. Damon flicked his tongue out and lapped up the blood that was flowing from the boy's neck, feeling him shudder against him and a quiet moan slip from his mouth.

"Thank you, Anthony." He purred in the boy's ear, twirling him around so his dazed, jewel-like eyes met with his. He was panting slightly, but was smiling dizzily at him, hands sloppily gripping his arms. Damon chuckled internally, he was acting like a virgin who had just had his first time.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a petite looking blonde in the corner who didn't look anywhere _near_ drunk enough yet. More to the point, she looked like she'd rather be anywhere than here, and Damon wasn't going to have that. He wanted to make sure his guests were happy.

He grabbed a bottle of alcohol, reasonably full, and held it out to Anthony, who took it with a slightly bewildered expression. "Go and take this to Roxanna for me." Anthony nodded, still giving him that dizzy smile, and walked away. Damon chuckled to think what Klaus would say about having competition.

_Probably kill them all_. Damon thought with a smug grin. The only reason why _Klaus_ wasn't his outlet, was because he had gone back to Chicago after Rebekah phoned him up saying that Gloria had found a new lead. Now Damon knew exactly how Klaus felt when someone else was occupying his attention. Not to mention it made Damon feel like a worthless college whore; the kind that went around paying people to look at them. Damon knew Klaus making hybrids was important to him, but Klaus was the only one who understood him, and Damon needed him. Especially now, when everyone was going to be against him.

Pushing the hybrid from his mind, which was no easy feat, he strode over to two girls, a raven-haired and a red-head, who were dancing very erotically with each other. Their arms were linked around each other's shoulders, draped there lazily while their hips twirled and ground against each others in perfect synch. They didn't look as dazed as Anthony, if anything they looked like they were going to kiss each other any second. Not that Damon would object to it.

"So girls, who wants to be bitten first?" He asked seductively, slinking over and interrupting their dance. Their eyes lit up with excitement, and Damon smirked - they were actually begging him to bite them. _Good_. He thought, feeling smug. That was exactly as it should be; human's were his food and he was their predator. He was stronger, faster and superior in every way, and literally had their lives in his hand.

"Me." The red-head broke away from her friend, stepping closer to him, practically offering him her scantily-clad body on a silver platter. He hissed, extending his fangs, and a sinful smile spread across her lips. Her friend made a disappointed sounding huff, and folded her arms.

"Don't worry Cheryl." Damon reassured the pouting raven-haired, holding her friend to his chest and inhaling the scent of her perfume. She moaned and pressed against him even more, and her friend looked jealous. "You're next I promise." He whispered, and he saw the faintest hint of a smile on her face before he closed his eyes and tucked into the meal that was panting desperately.

She writhed against him, and gasped over and over, but she didn't scream like the good little plaything she had been told not to do. Damon sank his fangs in deeper, tangling one hand into her hair, savouring the taste of her blood. This girl had type O negative, and alcohol wasn't tainting it. It was rare indeed, and the girl was putty in his hands.

Once he had drank his fill, he released the girl, and she went back to dancing, her previous bitemarks glistening from where the sunlight danced off her exposed flesh. Damon looked at Cheryl, and her eyes became hooded and seductive when she waltzed over to him. They shared a secretive smile, and Damon drank from her slowly, choosing to give her what she had been waiting for.

As she lost herself in the sensation of the feed and her moans filled the air, the sweet smell of arousal followed not too far behind. He grinned, slyly gliding his hand over her covered breasts and bare stomach, down to the waistline of her short shorts. The heat of her arousal was so great he could feel it radiating against his thigh.

He pulled his fangs out of her flesh, licking up the blood that was trailing luxuriously down the expanse of her neck, and guided her back towards her friend. She smiled giddily, and her and her friend resumed dancing with each other. Damon smiled sadistically, but it slid off his face as the music track changed and it began blaring out a pop song that did _not_ deserve it's popularity, and grated on Damon's nerves.

"Anthony, be a saint and turn the music over." He called over to him, Anthony looked over at him from where he was sat in front of the fire with Roxanna, before nodding obediently and walking over to the music player. "I can't stand this chick." Damon complained, grabbing his forgotten-until-now glass of bourbon and drained it.

"It's a guy." Anthony responded, flicking through the tracks until he came across _Would you love a Monsterman? _That was Damon's favourite song, he couldn't describe it, he just liked it.

"Really?" Damon asked in surprise. He could have sworn the previous singer was a girl, given how he sounded. "What's the world come to?" He muttered quietly to himself. As Anthony turned around to walk back to his girlfriend, the smell of his fresh bitemark floated into his nostrils. He wanted that boy's blood, and he wanted it _now_.

Damon was behind him in a flash, pressing their bodies together. One arm was curled lightly around Anthony's neck, while the other was twisting his wrist to bring it towards Damon's sharp teeth. He bit down, fangs brushing against the fragile bones, and Anthony squirmed in his discomfort. He tried to stifle his whimper, but Damon saw right through him.

"You don't have to be strong for me." He whispered as he pulled away, trailing his tongue up the length of Anthony's tanned arm. His tongue flicked against his earlobe and his hand stroked the boy's side lightly, sending chills up his spine. "Just let go..." He urged in a purr before claiming his blood once more. Damon growled low in the back of his throat as his body began to hum with power.

Licking his lips, he still held Anthony close to him, nuzzling into the back of his neck, placing a light kiss on the bitemark. "Mmm, you're definitely my favourite." He reared his head back, preparing for another drink, when his phone rang. Oddly, it didn't anger him, the mixture of alcohol and his blood in-take had left him in a strangely pleasant mood. "I'll be back in a second." He stepped away from Anthony, and he walked back to where Roxanna was sat with her arms folded, giving him a sour look.

He pulled his ringing phone from his pocket, smiling once he saw the caller I.D. "Klaus." Damon greeted him cheerfully, being a little too exuberant in his intoxicated state. "How's the Hybrid hunt coming along?" He asked, retrieving a bottle of bourbon - it was seemingly the only bottle of his private stash that Stefan hadn't managed to find - expertly breaking the neck off with a flick of his thumb.

"Still as fruitless as it was when I started." Klaus sighed and Damon poured the bourbon into his tumbler. "And I'm on the verge of daggering my sister again." He could just picture Klaus rubbing his temples in annoyance as a younger woman bounced beside him asking pointless and stupid questions in his ear, and then just when she was going to complain about something, he would pull the dagger from his sleeve and plunge it into her heart.

"That bad huh?" Damon chuckled, taking a long swig of bourbon.

"Are you drinking already?" Klaus asked, and Damon guessed he had probably heard the sound of the alcohol sloshing around from the speaker.

"Yep." Damon said, downing some more of the bourbon, while discreetly eyeing Roxanna. Anthony had convinced her to dance, she was now shirtless and under his spell like the rest of them. "And having a party with bad music, half-naked sorority girls" - he glanced towards Cheryl and her friend with a grin - "and the odd guy, you'd _love_ it." He whispered into the phone.

"Mmm, are you talking about the dancing and alcohol, or the thrill I would get from ripping those girl's limbs off for touching you?" Damon grinned at that, but a small part of him felt smug - Klaus couldn't do anything about it, he was in Chicago and everyone would be freshly compelled and back in their own dorm rooms with pounding headaches by the time he got back.

"Both." Damon said quickly, and he and Klaus chuckled. "There's a guy here too, nice build, very nice muscles..." He trailed off in an effort to rile Klaus up - playfully, of course - but all Klaus did was chuckle again. Klaus probably knew the human couldn't compete with him in any way shape or form, so he didn't see him as a threat, which was strangely unlike him, seeing as he had snapped a woman's neck yesterday just for bumping into him.

"Sorry I'm missing all the excitement." He chuckled.

"Why are you back in Chicago anyway?" Damon asked softly, resting his arm on the counter top, leaning against it. "I'm lonely..." He pouted his bottom lip out, well aware that Klaus couldn't see him. It frightened Damon sometimes, the things that Klaus could make him do. But on the other hand he loved it; they brought out the worst in each other and could revel in being cold-hearted killers without having to worry about the repercussions.

"Damon, I'm miles away from Mystic Falls, and I can already tell that you've had too much to drink." Klaus scolded him lightly, and Damon laughed. Maybe he _had_ had a bit too much to drink, but he didn't care. His vampirism heightened his intolerance to ten times that of an average human, and the blood he had consumed was taking the edge off. At least he wouldn't wake up with a hangover tomorrow.

"Nuh-uh." Damon giggled, his lips twisting into a naughty grin. "It's not even noon yet, and I haven't even played Twister." He smirked, glancing around the room at his currently resting company, if they weren't up to it, he could just make them feel up to it. Their minds were like broken walls and he was the thief coming in to steal whatever treasure remained. "It's gonna be one _Hell_ of a party. Maybe I'll even play Strip Poker, with Anthony." He bragged, deciding to try and rile Klaus up with something that he knew would work - he knew Klaus would hate the idea of anyone else seeing Damon in a way that was only meant for him. The more riled up Klaus was, made his "punishment" more enjoyable.

"Damon don't you dare-" Klaus began in an authoritative tone, but Damon cut him off.

"What can you do?" He challenged him light-heartedly, his intoxicated state making him noticeably braver, but paradoxically more stupid. Receiving no response from Klaus, who was probably gritting his teeth furiously, he went on. "You're in Chicago." He pointed out. "Sometimes a boy just has to make his own fun." He chuckled, taking advantage of Klaus' silence. "Gotta go, Anthony's about to dance." He ended the call, leaving his phone on the liquor cart.

Damon turned around, and suddenly an arm was pressed tightly against his throat, full weight bearing down on him and pressing him into the liquor cart. A decanter smashed, and Stefan's furious face came into view. "What the hell did you do?!" He screamed, and Damon's nostril's flared angrily - what was Stefan up to? - as a punch came flying for his face. He caught it quickly, and threw Stefan backwards, sending him crashing into the arm-chair a few feet away.

Stefan was up in a swift blur of motion, and both were snarling at each other. He rushed at Damon with a surprising burst of speed, but Damon was one step ahead; he tossed him aside like a rag doll, turning to where he fell, ready for round two.

Cheryl and her friend gasped, sitting bolt upright at the sound of splintering, and held onto each other tightly. "It's alright guys, brother's just being a buzz kill." He reassured them, glancing over to them while a snarling Stefan was crouched into an attacking position. "We'll pick this up later. Go back to college, you won't remember a thing." He called, projecting his voice throughout the room, his compulsion being strong enough to work without looking into their eyes. They went about the room, picking up their clothes and masking their bitemarks. Anthony waved at him as he left, and Damon grinned. Klaus would have a field day about this.

Once the door had shut behind them, Stefan growled again, moving forwards, but Damon smacked his hands away, and grabbed him by the throat, twisting around and throwing him to the ground with ease. To say he was confused with his brother was an understatement, weren't they on roughly the same page yesterday?

Stefan got up, begrudgingly accepting that he couldn't beat him, and Damon grinned triumphantly, although Stefan snarled at that. "What?!" He snapped, snatching his crumpled shirt from the arm rest of the sofa, angrily thrusting his arms through it and buttoning it with surprising ease. He guessed Stefan's surprise act had erased any and all signs and feelings of intoxication.

"How could you do this?" His eyebrows were furrowed and his eyes were shimmering with confusion. Damon smirked, he was just as clueless as everyone had been from the start. Even partying in front of him did no good, Stefan was either acknowledging it, and ignoring, or not noticing. But he had noticed _something_ he had done, that much was certain.

"Do what?" Damon was genuinely confused. He was certain Stefan wasn't talking about the party, he had never attacked him over one before, he usually just shook his head and rambled about morals that fell on deaf ears. What could have been different? Damon seriously doubted Stefan really cared that he had Anthony as well as the girls.

"You _bit_ Elena." Stefan looked at him, betrayed, and Damon glared at him. "_Elena_, Damon." His tone sounded pleading and accusing at the same time. Damon clenched his fist and he growled low in his throat. How was it that even though Elena had shattered Stefan's heart into pieces, he still jumped whenever she said something was wrong with her? Damon wondered how many people she _had_ told. Not that it mattered, he was in a type of mood that warranted him to kill anyone in his way.

"So!?" He said in exasperation, refraining from throwing his hands up in the air. He did not regret biting her, in fact, it was one of the smartest things he had ever done in his life. He told her the truth, and she couldn't handle it. It was the _only_ way for it to sink in, other than ripping one of her limbs off and painting his internal frustrations in Elena's own blood. "She pissed me off and I snapped." Damon stated blankly. "Girl's lucky I didn't kill her."

"But I should have." He growled. Stefan roared, quickly grabbing an empty bourbon bottle, smashing it against the side. Damon opened his mouth to say something else, but Stefan shoved the broken bottle half into his chest, pushing past thick bone and drawing blood. Damon chuckled as he had no reaction, and Stefan's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. _Ah, the wonders of human blood_. He thought.

"Ouch." He chuckled, then it slid off his face immediately. Damon drew the bottle from his chest, and slammed it into his brother's stomach. He groaned and fell to his knees, bleeding noticeably heavier than Damon. "I'm stronger than you, Stefan. I wouldn't cross me again." He warned him in a low growl.

"Why?" Stefan asked pitifully, spitting out blood and struggling to pull out the bottle.

"Why did I bite her?" Damon asked. Stefan was asking the wrong questions because he had, as usual, came to the wrong conclusion. He kneeled down next to his brother, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Why do you care? She broke up with you, for me." He yanked the bottle out of Stefan's chest with ease, tossing it several feet away from them. "Doesn't that make you the slightest bit mad?" He asked, rising to his feet.

"She may not be in love with me, Damon, but I still love her." Stefan was looking down, rubbing the bloodied spot of his mangled shirt, waiting for his skin to heal itself.

"Oh I see what's going on." Damon relaxed on his heels, folding his arms. "She's hiding behind her sorry excuses and getting you to do all the dirty work for her because she knows you'll do anything for her." He stated. It was obvious and severely nauseating to realise that Stefan would be Elena's eternally love-sick lap-dog until he either put himself out of his misery, or she died, a tragic - more like horrific if Damon was involved - death. "If that doesn't spell Katherine, I don't know what does."

Stefan got up, gritting his teeth against the pain he was no doubt in. "Damon-" He started.

"Don't _Damon_ me." Damon was done playing around. He was going to tell his brother the cold, hard truth, whether he liked it and could accept, it or not. "I've had it with everyone acting like blind mind-controlled idiots when it comes to Elena." He spat in annoyance. "Whenever she whines about something not going her way, someone automatically has to save her sorry ass because she can't be asked do it herself or because she wants to take the moral high-road."

"I hate her so much!" He yelled, kicking the sofa over and flipping it onto it's top so the legs stuck out blindly in the air. Damon's chest was heaving with anger, he and Stefan were supposed to be as close as anything - the Salvatore brothers, the best of friends - but once again, Stefan was putting women before him. It happened with Katherine too, that's why Damon wanted to be with her, although he never actually thought he would fall in love with her.

As sick as it sounded, Damon only chased after the girl's that Stefan had in order to be closer to him, Giuseppe had hated him, and Stefan was the only one to love him after his mother died. He needed some sort of attention, but his brother was always ignoring him and valuing his girlfriends over him, even more so when they entered the realm of vampirism. But now Damon had a source of affection - _Klaus_, and was not going to hold back from telling his brother the truth about Elena. Someone needed to say it sooner or later, and break her unholy hold on him.

"Damon what's gotten into you?" Stefan asked.

"A reality check." Damon glared at him.

"Is your humanity off?" He asked again.

"No!" Damon yelled, making Stefan take a step back as his vampire visage pushed its way up from the surface. "Why does everyone think that I'm acting like this because of something or someone else! I'm not." He looked directly into Stefan's eyes, hoping to convince him. "Just like I told Elena, I'm not compelled, and my humanity isn't off, but don't make me flip the switch just so I can kill her." He threatened, and he had absolutely no problem making it a reality.

"You can't kill her, Damon." Stefan shook his head, and Damon chuckled menacingly, his lips curving into a hateful sneer.

"Why not?" He retorted. "Nothing's physically stopping me." There was no barrier around Elena to stop her from being killed, only Stefan and her worthless friends and brother who he would gladly kill to get his revenge and his brother free from the deadly curse of the Petrova's charms. "She's made your life hell, and mine. I snap her neck, we're home-free." He stated with a grin.

"But Bonnie and Caroline will come after you." Stefan sounded like he was pleading with him, and trying to intimidate him. Caroline was much weaker than him, and would be useless trying to fight him, and Bonnie was only good for making his brain vessels explode. But she wasn't experienced enough to make it hurt enough to incapacitate him, which is was it would take to stop him. "And Jeremy." Stefan added, and Damon raised an eyebrow.

"You think I'm afraid of them?" Damon laughed incredulously, and Stefan's face became unreadable. "And Jeremy of all people? He couldn't beat up a pillow." He snorted, going from annoyed to angry in a split second. "You're almost as naïve as your girlfriend, Stefan." Damon looked up at him, and then gasped, putting a hand to his mouth. "Oh, _ex-_girlfriend, my mistake." He sneered cruelly.

He caught the punch coming before it was even remotely near his face. "Really?" He asked. His face became hard and he began to crunch Stefan's bones between his hand. "We're gonna do this again, huh?" Damon pushed him away and he nursed his hand, snapping the appendage, and then the individual digits back in place. "Just try and see things my way, Stefan. I wish you'd been in the parlour when I spoke to Elena yesterday."

"I was" - Damon nearly did a double-take at that - "and it took everything I had not to rush in and kill you right there and then for the crap you were spouting." Stefan folded his arms, maintaining an angry expression. Damon's jaw nearly dropped. Was his deaf as well as blind to Elena's wrong-doing? He had never been more disappointed in someone in his entire time on the Earth.

"Hold on." He held up a finger, surprised it wasn't shaking from how angry he was. "You _agreed_ with me before I spoke to her, and now you're playing the pissed off ex? What's wrong with you!?" He hissed, his eyes blazing.

"I love her, Damon!" Stefan yelled, and he narrowed his eyes in frustration and annoyance. Hearing those words being said, especially after everything he had said to Elena yesterday, made all of Damon's anger burst forth and explode quicker than a vervain grenade. His brother was just like the rest of them, and it seemed it was too late to save him.

"Oh, because that warrants you to turn against your own brother." Damon growled, hissing in outrage and drawing his fangs from his gums. Stefan took a step back, but Damon was having none of it, he closed the gap between them. "I risked Klaus killing me just so Elena could try and get you back home, I wasn't doing it for her, I was doing it for _you_."

"Don't lie, you don't care about anyone but yourself, if anything yesterday and your little party I interrupted just proved that." Stefan said blankly, and Damon's nostrils flared before his slammed his fist onto the table behind Stefan, nearly smashing it to pieces. Stefan's eyes widened and Damon held his ground.

"If I cared about myself, Elena would be headless and floating in the quarry." He hissed with certainty. "Don't make me wish that I had done it." He growled. It wasn't a threat, because he _would_ do it the first chance he got. Anywhere, anytime, any place. He wanted her dead and there was nothing anyone could do to change his mind.

"You do, and I'll kill you." Stefan swore, and Damon chuckled at him.

"Really?" He raised his eyebrows and Stefan nodded. "I'm older than you, stronger than you, faster than you, so good luck. Even if you drink human blood, I'll always be a step ahead."

"Have you been with Katherine?" Stefan asked. Damon couldn't help but wish he was just acting stupid because he was upset over his break-up with Elena, but he knew deep down that he wasn't. It would always be Elena in his eyes, never mind the big brother who nearly got himself killed trying to bargain for his freedom.

"No, she's been here the whole time." Damon stepped back from Stefan. "I've just learned to think for myself, and not to revolve everything around "the Golden Girl" and her pathetic life. None of this would have happened if you hadn't decided you needed to know her." He pointed out. Damon could have breezed in looking for a way to open the tomb, and Elena would have been in no way affected, because she wouldn't have met him or Stefan, he wouldn't have figured out Bonnie was a witch, and Elena certainly wouldn't have fallen in love with both of them and played them like a piano.

"You put your own selfish gain before thinking about what would happen, and now look at what's happened." Damon spat the next words slowly and clearly into Stefan's face so he could hear them. "It's _all, your, fault._" He was thrown down then, and watched in amusement as Stefan stood above him. Damon dared him to make the next move, knowing he wouldn't succeed, although his amusement quickly turned to rage as Stefan snapped off one of the sofa's legs, intending to use it as a weapon.

Damon blocked it with precision as Stefan went to strike it down into his chest, and grabbed Stefan tightly by his throat, pushing and pushing until his strength overwhelmed his brother and he sailed through the air, landing in a crumpled heap against the wall. Damon stared Stefan down as he got up, he couldn't believe his own brother would try to kill him, or that him biting Elena had made it escalate to this.

Stefan came at him again, but Damon had had enough of being challenged by a weaker vampire, and flipped Stefan over with ease, using his weight against him and yanking his weapon wielding hand down. He landed on his back, and Damon's foot was pressed down on his neck before he could attempt to get up.

"I know you won't admit it, because you're blinded by your love for her just like everyone else is blind to the things she does, but she _is_ the problem." Damon removed his foot, and crouched on top of his brother, snatching the stake from his hand. He jammed it harshly into his stomach, feeling it penetrate his body and crack through the floorboards, right down into the first layers of the building's foundation. Stefan screamed out in pain, and Damon turned a blind eye, ignoring what he thought was his brother lying underneath him.

"And there's nothing you can say, or do, to convince me otherwise." He smirked sadistically, and twisted the stake for dramatic effect, hearing Stefan grimace to stop himself from screaming again. Damon grinned and patted Stefan's cheek, picking himself up off his brother. He turned and left the parlour without a second thought, leaving his brother staked to the ground.

He was itching to kill someone, something...

... Anyone who got in his way.

The door slammed loudly behind him, and Damon stormed past his Camaro and down the driveway.

Damon arrived outside the Grill in a matter of minutes, finding a few odd cars dotted around the car park. He suspected that no-one was keen on coming here since his last hit had shook everyone to the core, but a few victims were better than no food at all. Given how angry he was feeling, he was pretty certain that ripping up some of Stefan's furry, woodland friends would dispel some of it. But he was after something fresh, with a mouth that could unleash the most haunting of screams.

He strode into the Grill, surprised no cracks were appearing in the ground from his powerful steps, and sat down in his usual bar stool, clenching and un-clenching his fists while he tried to calm himself down. Who did Stefan think he was? To challenge him like that, to try and belittle him like that. He would show him, show them all. Life was just one big game, and they were all against each other.

Out of the corner of his eye, Damon saw the few customers sat at the bar giving him judgemental looks for reasons he couldn't fathom. They were looks that Damon detested. They reminded him of all those who opposed him and who stood in his way, trying to make him fight his true nature. And out of those people, stood one name in particular - _Elena_.

The bartender's arm appeared in front of him as he sweeped the bar for empty glasses. "What can I get you, Sir?" He asked briskly, collecting the glasses in one movement. Damon stared, burning holes, through the woodwork, too angry to respond. "Sir?" He tried again, and Damon snapped up his wrist with vice-like fingers, ignoring the panicked sounding whispers of the teenage customers.

His eyes burned to black, bringing out the angry monster he had been summoning more and more as of late. The bartender gave a stifled scream as Damon ripped his fangs into his skin, biting down on the appendage hard enough to crush his bones as he guzzled the blood down. Panic rose all around him, but Damon was oblivious and continued to gulp greedily.

The bartender fell dead behind the counter, and a woman in a far-off booth shrieked in terror, and Damon grinned, licking his bloody lips, as pandemonium rose up around him. He was going to enjoy this. He slid out of the bar stool, walking over to the Grill's nearest exit towards the panic - people were ducking behind tables or just clutching their loved ones tightly to them while they began to sob - bolting the only means of escape shut.

"No-one leaves." He said gleefully. An old man began shouting ridiculous insults at him as the women and children started to cry, some even bawling their eyes out. but Damon ignored them and lunged straight for the nearest victim, one of the teenagers that had looked at him when he came in.

He screamed, as did everyone else around him, but Damon ignored him and them, becoming immersed in the feed. There was about six other people to get through, but he had time, he wasn't going anywhere any time soon, and besides, nobody said he had to feed to kill. And if it was going to calm him down, so be it.

The teenager's body dropped to the floor, and Damon heard the sound of a gun cocking. He looked up, sneering at the old man as the barrel of a gun came into view. The fool was holding a pistol towards him, and Damon guessed by the way his hands were shaking, that he knew nothing about vampires and those bullets weren't wooden ones.

"Go on then." Damon held up his hands in a surrendering position. The old man jumped a little and looked taken aback at being addressed directly by the person he was just about to shoot, and so calmly at that. "I dare you." He challenged him. The old man fired and a bullet embedded itself deep in his chest. His eyes darkened as blood seeped from the wound.

"You probably shouldn't have done that." Damon growled. There was an eerie stretch of silence as the old man's hands shook like a building in an earthquake. Damon roared wildly, darting forwards and pouncing on the old man as if he were a cat going after a mouse. They smashed into the table, crushing with their weight. Damon bit into the man's carotid artery, spilling blood everywhere; all over both the predator and prey, and over the unwilling onlookers, _everywhere._

The man's screams mingled in perfect harmony with the soon-to-be-victims as Damon drained him dry. He was feeling so _powerful_ that he felt like he could do anything, take on _anyone_ and win. He tore away from the man once he was dead, rearing up on all fours like a predatory wolf. A terrified looking woman caught his eye as she cowered behind a booth. She was a brunette, and Damon launched himself at her, wishing as he heard her scream that she was Elena.

Damon soon became so immersed in the feed, that he completely lost himself in a medley of horrified shrieks, a carol of smashed glass and wave after wave of fresh new blood streamed down his throat. Necks were snapped as his fangs crunched remorselessly into them, snuffing out their pathetic, meaningless lives to fuel his own eternal one.

He prowled through the maze of dead bodies, feeling replenished and satisfied, that was until he saw the brunette girl feet away from him. Her eyes were lifeless, staring into space while she herself was still. She had been the only brunette in the bar, and had to bear the brunt of his internal anger towards Elena. He would never calm down until she was dead, or out of Mystic Falls for good, but dead was the preferred option.

And he had a pretty good idea of where she was.

He ripped the door's lock off and disappeared in a blur of air, leaving the bodies unattended. The next customer was going to get the shock of his life when he went in for that club sandwich. Just imagining the look of such surprise and horror on someone's face made Damon grin.

Damon arrived at Mystic High halfway through lesson three, crossing the campus silently, his boots crunching on the concrete. He pushed the double-doors open, walking down the locked-lined hallway until he came to the clearly marked reception desk. He was sure that Klaus would go on a murderous rampage to rival his latest accomplishments if he could see the look that receptionist was giving him.

She opened her mouth her mouth to speak, but Damon silenced her, quickly staring into her green eyes. "Page Elena Gilbert, _now_." He ordered. The receptionist smiled at him and turned around to the small white phone.

"Yes, I'll tell him." She put the phone back and turned to him. "Elena's not in today, she has a stomach ache. I could leave a message with Mr. Saltzman if you would like." She smiled in a flirtatious tone, twirling a tress of hair between her fingers.

"No, that's fine." Damon dismissed her - her face fell and her eyes dropped downwards - a plan formulating in the corners of his mind. _He_ was going to leave that message, in one of the most poetic ways. He stared at the woman's eyes again. "Forget I was here, and forget this conversation."

Damon turned on his heel and headed for Alaric's classroom. He knew where it was because of the amount of times Alaric had needed his drinking buddy to alleviate some stress. That was all Alaric was to him, a person to share alcohol with, maybe they could have been real friends if he hadn't tried to kill him upon finding that he had turned his wife, per her request.

Damon peered through the classroom window, and saw Alaric teaching a class. Bonnie, Caroline and his brother were nowhere in sight, but Alaric still had his ring on, so he would have to be tactful to make sure he couldn't be resurrected. He couldn't cause too much of a scene in getting it off, either.

He eyed the circuit breaker craftily, flicking the switch off that was marked T-56. The lights blinked out inside the classroom, and Damon shot in with his vampire speed. Using his keen sight, he sought out Alaric in the darkness, and grabbed him; snapping his neck and throwing him behind the desk. He then rushed around, barring every possible exit while the students chatted amongst themselves, groping for one another in the darkness.

Damon crept up behind one of the students, and bit his neck. His screams alerted the others, setting off a chain reaction of gasps and nervous whimpers. Damon snapped the boy's neck, and desks were thrown around in the hysteria and he stood back to watch them run towards the sealed exit.

"It won't open!" One girl cried ion frustration, twisting and yanking the handle that wouldn't budge. Damon instantly decided that it would be more fun to watch and listen to them burn alive. With no supplies, it would require tapping into the Old Powers, but he had done it before. Although it drained him, he didn't have to worry about it now; he was _much_ stronger than he had been.

He took a deep breath, standing still while the students war still struggling in the darkness with the locked door. Damon focused on nothing but the air around him, and he felt a large weight pressing briefly down on his chest, before engulfing his entire body. It was his soul; bending and twisting to accommodate his new darkness and harness the power the blood gave him.

His bones followed soon after, becoming softer and lighter. He felt himself levitating off the ground, melting into a pool of darkness. Damon found himself staring at the floor from a few feet up, in the familiar form of the crow that he used to take before his Power was drained after Stefan vervained him and left him in the cellar below the boarding house or five days straight, with no blood.

He called out, squawking loudly, as he flapped his wings to stay airborne. The teenagers jumped, and he flew past them, clipping a few of their cheeks before he shot through the tiny gap in the open window, screeching in a sadistic melody.

Damon fluttered clumsily - what vampire wouldn't be after not using the Old Powers for so long? - feeling his legs lengthen and his wings extend into arms. He stood tall, looking up the sky. Power surged violently through his veins, and the clouds darkened to an ominous grey, rumbling their arrival.

A bolt of lightning struck the roof of the classroom, spewing bright, hazardous sparks everywhere. Damon's eyes glowered with triumph as the entire building was becoming rapidly engulfed in flames and the trapped occupants were yelling in pure terror. This had probably been his most reckless plan yet, but he didn't care. He knew Elena felt compassion, and she was sure she had friends in that room besides Bonnie and Caroline, so she would be upset by their deaths, providing she heard about them.

She would be exceptionally upset about Alaric, and that was one reaction he couldn't wait to see. He turned around to go, as the smell of smoke was becoming too difficult to hide, and people would be coming out of their classes at any second because of the fire bell that had been triggered by a smoke alarm, but he stopped at the sound of a voice he knew all too well. And she sounded _mad_.

"When I find him I'm gonna-" Bonnie stopped growling in mid-tirade to Caroline when she caught sight of the clamouring students, and Damon sped behind a tree to avoid detection as she, Caroline, and many other students who had noticed, ran from the flames screaming. Unbeknownst to them, fresh, warm bodies were burning to a crisp inside. "Woah, what's going on?" Her eyes widened in horror.

"It's coming from Alaric's History classroom." Caroline pointed towards it, and they rushed off with the other students, trying to get as far away as possible. Damon heard the sound of sirens blaring as fire trucks drove into the school's car park. He watched as the firemen quickly rushed out, calling orders over the screaming fire alarm and panicking students. He was gone with a rustle of grass, and was away from the school in seconds flat.

He was still twitching with unresolved anger, and he couldn't control himself. Damon gripped an oak tree by the base, yanking it up from the ground and throwing it away. The still attached roots snapped as the tree went flying. He looked down at his own hands, if he was capable of that when he was _angry_, he could wreak Hell when he wasn't.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out, not looking at the caller I.D when he accepted the call. "So, breaking news says that there's been a rather large string of murders across Mystic Falls." Klaus' voice was like music to Damon's ears, and he didn't think he'd been so happy to hear someone before. He also felt a little proud, his murders had gone around _that fast_? And everyone was still oblivious. "You've been busy I see." He chuckled.

"Just channeling frustration." Damon responded, blowing out a breath to stop himself from uprooting another tree.

"You seem upset." Klaus stated, and Damon swallowed. Even in other country Klaus could tell what was wrong with him.

"I'm not upset." Damon said emotionlessly. "I've just found out that my brother is no longer my brother, he's just another one of Elena's mindless drones who'll do whatever she says." His voice turned into a growl, and he clenched his free hand to stop himself from cracking his phone to pieces.

"What happened exactly?" Klaus asked softly.

"Long story short, I told her the truth and she slapped me, so I bit her." Damon said, grinding his teeth together. "Now, Stefan is playing the White Knight trying to get me to feel bad about what I've done." He spat onto the ground, and was about ready to punch a tree in half, but thankfully Klaus' voice stopped him.

"Do you?" He asked, and Damon closed his eyes briefly. His accent was soothing and took a small part of the anger away.

"No, I should have done it the first chance I got." He said with regret. He should have done it the second she broke his heart, he shouldn't have gone for Jeremy, it should have been her whose neck he snapped, then she wouldn't have came back because she wouldn't have had the fortune of the Gilbert ring to resuscitate her. "Would have saved everyone a lot of useless detective work trying to find the "new vampire" in Mystic Falls." He added.

"You seem to be faring quite well." Damon could tell Klaus was smiling from the way he spoke, and it made him feel like he was appreciated, and actually wanted around. "Does anyone suspect you?" He asked.

"They wouldn't if I ran through town square in my boxers covered in bright pink paint screaming that I did it." Damon smiled as he said that, and Klaus chuckled at the mental image. "Or if I did, they'd all try and fix me. I swear, if I had a penny for every time someone's asked whether I'm compelled or my humanity is off, I'd be filthy rich and living it up on the Bahama's right now." He stated.

"Besides, nobody's going to suspect me, because they're all too busy trying to chase me down for hurting their Goddess that they shamelessly worship without question." He growled, feeling the monster inside him preparing for another kill. "Stefan's already tried to kill me, so that leaves Mini Gilbert, Alaric, Blondie and Sabrina." He said, counting a finger as he listed them. "Business as usual." He muttered sarcastically.

"Did you say Stefan's tried to kill you?" Klaus asked, sounding shocked.

"Yes." Damon snapped, memories of the morning invading his mind. "He stabbed me, and I stabbed him back. _To the floor_." He smirked at that. "He said if I killed Elena, he'd kill me. I'd love to see him try, and after what I did to save him...!" He took a deep breath, but couldn't stop himself this time, and a little sapling was snapped in half. "Our deal isn't saving him anymore, it's saving me from going completely insane."

"Seems like I'll have to take you with me earlier than I'd planned." Klaus said, and Damon could have sworn he was mis-hearing things, but he was also smiling. Someone was actually picking him first? _Never mind that. _Damon thought happily. _I'll be able to get the Hell out of this town._ "No matter, two vampires looking for a way to create hybrids should get things done faster." The smile slid off Damon's face in an instant, only to be replaced with a scowl.

"_What_ is your obsession with Hybrids!?" He nearly yelled into the speaker, although he managed to contain himself. "Wouldn't it just be more fun being the ultimate badass or something? Or the King of the supernatural world?" He asked. "You can't do that if there's mini you's running around." He pointed out.

"This isn't about power, Damon." Klaus said, and that was the most vulnerable he had sounded. Damon was shocked.

"You don't want to be alone, do you?" He guessed, murmuring quietly.

"My family turned against me all those years ago, my Father's hunted me all through the centuries and my mother turned her back on me because of a stupid mistake _she_ made." Klaus said. "I have no-one." He sighed somberly, and Damon wanted to jump through the phone and slap some sense into him. Instead he just said three words. Three little words that he knew Klaus would remember.

"You have me." He ended the call, and then abruptly yelled out in pain, dropping the phone like it was a burning iron.

Daggers were attacking his brain and it was all he could do not to fall on his knees. The human blood gave him a lot more immunity than a blood bag would have, but it was still excruciating. He looked up, snarling and hissing as his blood vessels exploded over and over again. Two figures came into view, a blurry blonde wearing a pink sundress, and an dark-skinned girl with her hand outstretched towards him.

"Bonnie!" He yelled out hoarsely, into the forest, frightening the wildlife. She ignored him and the pain intensified, although he wasn't going to be brought to his knees. It wasn't strong enough, no matter how angry Bonnie was. "Bonnie what the hell are you doing!?" He yelled again through gritted teeth.

"You nearly killed Elena, I'm returning the favour." Bonnie said in a hardened voice, eyes completely focused on him. Damon hissed as he felt blood trickle onto his mouth. He brought one hand up to his nose, and wiped underneath, growling in annoyance as blood was smeared over his hand.

Through his blurred vision, he spotted Caroline, just stood there like an accessory, and sped over to her with what little strength the blood had preserved for him. He grabbed her in a viciously tight choke-hold from behind, one that she wouldn't be able to get out of even though Bonnie's spell was still in effect. It was the problem, and Caroline was the bargaining chip. "If you don't stop right now, I'll rip her heart out." He swore.

"You won't hurt her." Bonnie said firmly, fully believing she was right, although Damon could see she was treading carefully. At least she was smart. Caroline struggled in his arms, but he wasn't going to let her go.

"Won't I?" Blue eyes met brown in a silent stand-off, each daring each other to make the first move. Damon grinned slyly, despite the nerve-burning pain in his skull, and punched his hand into Caroline's chest. She gasped desperately, clawing at his arm, but he wasn't letting go. To prove his point, he snarled - much louder than he wanted to because she wasn't getting it any other way.

Bonnie's eyes widened as realisation finally dawned on her, and Damon felt the needles instantly leave his skull. He smirked triumphantly, the things people would do for those they cared about amazed him sometimes. "Okay, you win!" Bonnie yelled her surrender, and he dropped Caroline to the floor, gasping and choking as her wound started to heal itself.

"I can't believe you, Damon!" Bonnie yelled at him, running over and kneeling next to Caroline. Damon scoffed in response as Bonnie began rubbing Caroline's back while she kept rubbing the bloodied hole in her dress. "Just when I was beginning to think there was some good in you, and then you screw it up." Bonnie glared at him.

"Well, believe it or not, I don't care what people think." Damon smiled shortly at her before dropping it. He knelt down next to her and Caroline, to make sure the message he was about to give sunk into their thick skulls. "I am who I am, and I'll always be this way. I am a _vampire_, not a lifeless puppet." He stood back up and folded his arms.

"What are you talking about?" Bonnie asked, and Damon looked down in frustration, furrowing his eyebrows. She was just as brain-dead as the rest of them.

"I'm talking about the fact that you all go down on one knee to worship Elena, especially you Bonnie." He sneered at the mention of Elena's name, she had caused all of this. Whenever something wasn't about her, she had to make it. "Your Grams is dead because of Elena." Damon said harshly. He knew it was a tender subject for Bonnie, but he didn't care about her, and it was the only way what he was saying seemed to register in people's brains.

"No, she's dead because you threatened her to remove the seal." Bonnie stood up at the mention of her Grams and her shoulders squared defensively. Her eyes were hardened into a look that could kill, and Caroline was sat silently where she was, clearly expecting another stand-off. Damon held his ground, not backing down. The witch could not intimidate him, she could _hurt_ him, but they were two different things entirely.

"Actually, I told her to _open the door_, albeit I didn't know I'd get trapped in there." Damon told her. He had said nothing of the sort to Sheila about breaking down the seal, he couldn't have because he didn't know about it until Stefan came to console him about Katherine not being in there. "_Elena _was the one who made you both _remove the seal_. If she had left me and Stefan in there, your Grams would have been fine." He pointed out. The spell to open the door had not been a strong one, they weren't even chanting for five minutes before it was open, but the seal was something different; they were both struggling, and the things they were challenging were barely helping.

Bonnie's eyes flickered in confusion, and she shook her head lightly, trying not to believe the words he was saying, but he could see that she had realised that before anyone else. Not that it would do any good though, everyone always blindly made excuses for Elena's actions to make her seem _caring_ and _compassionate_, Damon saw right through that charade. "But then-"

"But then Elena would be unhappy and pining away like the little bitch she is." Damon cut her off abruptly, not wanting to hear about now Bonnie was no doubt going to try and pin the blame on him and get it off Elena. "I know, I get it. She's your friend and all, but put yourself first for once in your pathetic lives."

"My Grams' death doesn't excuse the fact that you bit Elena, and nearly killed her." Bonnie snapped at him, and Damon chuckled arrogantly. Bonnie's hard-edged stare faltered, replaced by a look of confusion and fear. She clearly thought his humanity was off too. _Just as delusional as the rest of them_. He thought sourly.

"If I wanted to kill her, I would have, it was just a little bite." He smirked. Bonnie's eyes widened, and he heard a snarl from where Caroline was sat. She was up in a second, hissing and snarling at him with her fangs on display. She charged at him, but he halted her movements by grabbing her chin. He smiled at her with hardened eyes, before swiftly bringing his other hand up to the back of her head and snapping her neck.

Her neck snapped with a sickening crunch, and her body fell limply to the ground with a _thump_. Her eyes were closed, and her head was lying at an odd angle while her legs were folded underneath her. Damon gritted his teeth as the familiar needling pain of Bonnie's magical aneurism assaulted his mind once more.

He growled out in frustration, speeding over to her and grabbing her in an exceptionally tight choke-hold. The pain stopped instantly, and Bonnie went rigid. He applied more pressure, and her hands flew up to grip at his wrist and pry it off, but she had no chance. Not even other aneurism could save her this time, he was too mad, and too far-gone.

"I should kill you right now." He spat, his eyes turning black as the monster inside him growled loudly, threatening to overtake him.

"Do it and Elena will hate you forever." Bonnie choked out in what she clearly thought was a threatening voice.

"She already does." He said nonchalantly, and Bonnie looked downwards, defeated in trying to make him feel remorse. "Gave her a glimpse of the real me, and she hated it. Besides, it's not like Elena hating me has any power over me, not anymore. I'm with someone else who appreciates who I am and brings out the real me." He smirked and it was even more ironic when they had no idea it was one of the oldest vampires of all time, and one that they had been trying to kill.

"Oh and what woman has the misfortune of doing that?" Bonnie raised an eyebrow at him.

"It's not a woman, and it's none of your business." Damon told her in a dangerously sweet voice. "Now, since you seem to be such a good messenger, little bird, tell Stefan I won't hesitate to kill the next person who comes after me for biting Elena." He made sure Bonnie's eyes widened in horror before he threw her onto the floor, and sped away before Bonnie had the chance to

He was done playing around, enough with the distractions, he was going to finish what he started.

A few hours later, stood in front of the Gilbert house, looking up at the large window behind the cream balcony. Elena was inside, writing in her diary. Every so often, she would stop to bite her lip and look upset about something. She was no doubt venting her frustrations for having the truth told to her, and that was what angered Damon the most. She played the honesty card to him, calling him all sorts of things and saying things without a second thought that were guaranteed to hurt him, but when she got it played in return, she whined and cried like a little child. Yesterday was just evidence of that.

He decided he had been stood there long enough, and walked up to the door. He spotted Jeremy sat in the living room playing on his X-box, so he would be the first to open the door. No matter, Jeremy still had the Gilbert ring on, and he was a vampire. Damon raised a fist and knocked on the door, stepping to the side as Jeremy's footsteps came closer.

The door opened, and Jeremy was stood there, looking out on the porch to see who was there. Damon smirked, and swung a fist towards Jeremy, striking him in the chest. "Knock, knock." He said as Jeremy toppled onto the floor with a grunt. He looked up into the face of his attacker, and scrambled to his feet immediately.

"What the hell are you doing here!?" He yelled, raising his fists for a fight. Damon nearly rolled his eyes at the young Gilbert's stupidity, it seemed to run in the family. Elena had no doubt told him as a last resort, and judging by the look on Jeremy's face, he hadn't been expecting Damon to show up and that Bonnie and Caroline could have handled him.

"None of your business." Damon snapped at him, moving forwards slightly. Jeremy kept his fists up, giving him a clear view of the ring he was tempted to rip off, but the one he wanted was upstairs, and Jeremy was nothing but a hindrance. A hindrance that was very easy to get rid of. "But just be thankful for that ring of yours."

Jeremy's eyes widened as Damon's turned black in response. He chuckled before grabbing Jeremy by his neck, covering his mouth with his hand, and sinking his fangs in. Damon drank deeply, feeling all the power that Bonnie's magical assault had taken away flow back to him in an instant over the sound of Jeremy's muffled screams. His struggles were nothing more than kicks to his shins, and the type that school boy's fought each other with.

Damon let Jeremy's body slip through his fingers and collapse to the floor as he drained every last drop from his body. He sighed in pleasure, licking his lips clean, wiping what his tongue couldn't reach with his shirt sleeve. Stepping over Jeremy's body, he began silently creeping up the stairs.

He found Elena where he had seen her from the window - resting against the wall with her legs bent towards her chest, and with her diary resting on it as she scribbled furiously in it. She hadn't noticed him, and Damon couldn't help but glare at her. She was acting like she was the victim in all this, but she wasn't. Not everything was about her, if it wasn't she would start whining. There would be _countless_ victims by the time Damon was done with this town, although he wasn't saving her for last.

"Dear diary." He mimicked Elena in a high-pitched voice. She gasped and turned to look at him, her eyes hardening and becoming angry. "Yesterday a big bad vampire tried to bite me, his name was Damon." He went on, and as Elena's hair came away from her neck when she brushed it off her face, clearly frustrated and angry, Damon saw she had a large bite mark scar on the side of her neck. "And I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure I can force him to be like his annoying, less attractive younger brother whose heart I've broken." He finished with a fake pout, sniggering at Elena's "threatening" icy glare.

"Go away, Damon." She spat, standing up. He stood his ground, his eyes locking with hers in a blatant form of defiance. He was here to settle something, so why would he leave? Not when he was so close.

"Why?" Damon asked with a mock hurt expression. "I at least deserve an explanation over why everyone's suddenly attacking me for hurting you." His voice became angry, and he felt it rising within him in a burning hot column of fire. It was like nobody was smart enough to contemplate why he would do something like that, if they did, maybe other people besides Klaus would be on his side, or maybe they'd _understand!_

"That's precisely why." Elena's eyes softened almost instantly, and she walked towards him. Damon moved backwards as she reached out to touch his shoulder, and her expression became confused. He was done being her puppet and it was time she understood. "Damon, I thought you cared about me." She asked in a soft tone, sounding close to tears. She had told him to go away seconds ago, now she was going to start crying over him? Damon rolled his eyes in boredom. It was always the same thing with her.

"Nope, I only care about two people." He said harshly. "Stefan, and the other who I can't mention." He felt his stomach go into knots when he indirectly mentioned Klaus, he hadn't heard back from him and he was beginning to wonder what trouble Klaus' brain had in processing the fact that he was with him now and he didn't need any stupid hybrids.

"What happened to you? You used to be... _good_." Elena sighed, and Damon scoffed, keeping his distance. She didn't get to touch him, she had no right, not after what she'd done. Not just to him today, but to him since he expressed his love for her, and how she destroyed Stefan's heart. No matter how much of a brainless idiot he was being as of late, Damon would always care about him, _very_ deep down.

"That's the thing, I'm not." Damon folded his arms, and Elena looked like she was about to protest, but he was not going to let her interrupt this. "And while we're on the subject of good, it wasn't a very "good" thing to send Stefan, Bonnie and Caroline after me." He scolded her with malice burning in his eyes. "What's next, Alaric jumps out from your wardrobe like Van Helsing covered in garlic wreaths and crucifixes yelling "die vampire, go back to Hell where your eternally beautiful body will fester forever"?" He snickered at the mental image even though said man was dead, and Elena's face pinched into a scowl.

"They're just being good friends." She folded her arms. "Which is more than you are!" She yelled.

"Why would I want to be friends with a manipulative, back-stabbing, hypocritical _bitch_?" Damon countered smartly, and Elena took a step back in shock, her eyes becoming glassy. "What's wrong? Know I'm right?" He taunted her. Her fists clenched by her sides, and her chin tipped up towards him, trying not to show him she was afraid, but she was, Damon could hear her heartbeat.

"You're not." She spoke through gritted teeth, and Damon felt like he was smashing his head against a brick wall.

"So I'm just gonna add "delusional" to the list too." He said absent-mindedly, ignoring her anger-filled glare. It didn't faze him, _she_ didn't faze him anymore. "And childish, bratty, spoilt-" He caught her hand as it came whirling for his face, and her other. She gasped in frustration, pulling against his iron grip, but he wasn't going to let her go lightly.

He growled loudly and tossed her through the air. She smacked against the wall, rolling harmlessly off, although landing with a nasty thud and a scream. Damon chuckled and started walking towards her. Elena scrambled up, although by the time she backed against the wall, Damon already had a tight hold on her wrists.

"Damon what's wrong with you!?" She yelled, struggling against him. Damon pushed her backwards further into the wall, making her cry out in pain. "I know you love me, just stop this!" She screamed. It was sad, she had deluded herself into thinking he was doing this as a form of rebellion because she didn't reciprocate his feelings for her that night. She was sorely mistaken.

"That's where you're wrong." He told her, leaning his weight casually against her arms, hearing her gasp or grit her teeth from the way her muscles ached under the growing pressure. "I may have _loved_ you, but I wised up and found someone who doesn't try and change the darkest parts of me."

"I'm trying to save you!" She gasped desperately, going completely limp against the wall, her eyes shining with unshed tears.

"From what? Myself?" He asked sarcastically. His jaw nearly dropped open as Elena nodded, but instead he felt a muscle twitch in anger. "I don't need to, and I also don't need teenage girls bossing me around like they know everything about everyone. I am not one of your little minions that you can command, I'm a _killer_ who doesn't take orders from anyone." He stared straight into her eyes, and he could see he was getting somewhere with her at last. Although she wasn't going to give up easily.

"Please, this isn't you..." She breathed, fighting against his grip, reaching up and outlining the tips of his face with her fingers. He shied away from her touch, harshly jerking his head back. Her eyes were filled with hurt and confusion, and he wanted to spit in her face that rejection wasn't so good when it was being returned, but he had other things on his mind.

"Yes it is!" He yelled, making her jump in his grip. "How many times do I have to tell you!?" He went on, his body pumping with so much adrenaline he felt like he was going to explode. When was she going to stop ignoring what was right in front of her? Damon took a deep breath, deciding only one thing would do the trick. "Oh and while I'm at it, I have a little confession for you. So listen up." His voice was falsely sweet, but Elena didn't have time to say anything else, as he grabbed a large fistful of his hair, twisting it so there was no gap between his fingers and her scalp.

He leaned in towards her ear, dismissing her pathetic whimpers and becoming oblivious to her weak punches to his chest. "I'm the one who's been killing all those people, and I'm not sorry about it." He whispered gleefully, chuckling as her heart began beating like a hammer.

"How could you do that!?" She yelled, fighting against the pain his grip was inflicting on her. "They were innocent people who have done nothing to you!" She gritted her teeth and screamed as Damon yanked on her hair harder. As to be expected, she was lecturing him, even now when he was near-enough tearing her hair out.

"No, they're my food." Damon corrected cruelly, Elena shook her head and his upper lip curved into a snarl. "I'm at the top of the food-chain, and hospital blood just wasn't cutting it. Besides, I didn't want to fight something that was a natural instinct." He told her. Then his eyes glowered as he held Elena to him, her body going limp.

"But I'd love to see _you_ try." Damon released her hair and slammed her up against the wall, one hand holding her throat and dangling her a few inches off the floor. Her eyes widened in horror and she began to shriek as he bit his wrist, drawing a heavy amount of blood.

He quickly muffled her cries, shoving his wrist over her lips. She was writhing against his body and the wall now, fighting for her life as his blood forced its way down her throat and she drank involuntarily. Her hands pried at his wrists, but it was locked there, damning her for all eternity. She kneed him in the stomach, but it had little to no effect on him.

"Because then, maybe, just maybe, you'll stop being such a thorn in my side once you learn what it truly means to be a vampire." Damon breathed, and Elena's face flickered to confusion to downright petrified as he briefly pulled her away from the wall, grabbing her face in his hands tightly.

He grinned at her, flashing his fangs, and then snapped her neck.

Her lifeless body thumped to the ground, and Damon stood over her triumphantly. She wouldn't last a week as a vampire, and she would sooner or later beg someone to kill her, and he was more than happy to oblige. _Again_. The sooner she was _dead_ dead - having suffered unimaginably first of course - would be better for Mystic Falls and everyone else around her.

Needles pierced his skull for the second time that day, and Damon screamed, dropping to his knees. Shock ran through him as three bodies entered Elena's bedroom. That was it now, there was no turning back from this. He looked up to see Bonnie's angry face - it didn't hold a candle to the raging inferno it now was - looming over him and Caroline rushing over to Elena's body with tears in her eyes, while Stefan stood over him with a vervain needle poised above both of their heads.

He groaned in surprise as the needle was jammed into his shoulder-blade. Damon slumped lifelessly to the ground as the vervain began to take effect. He passed out in a matter of minutes, seeing nothing but darkness.

~ooOOoo~

**(A/N) Okay, how was that chapter? The cat's outta the bag now and Elena's "dead", well I knew from the beginning she had that coming, did you all know? *Does freaky eye-brow thing*.**

**I tried not to make it escalate too quickly, but I felt like Damon wouldn't bide his time after being attacked by three people per Elena's wishes.**

**Oh, and about the party scene, Anthony isn't competition for Klaus and we won't see him again - we'll see someone Damon knows though, very soon - I just thought that Damon would still have girls at the party, and I put Anthony in there because as Elena said in the last chapter, "he's gay again". Also, I hope the party scene didn't seem too twisted, but if it did, awesome!**

**Anyway, lemme know what you thought, and stay tuned for the next chapter.**


	7. Chapter 7

(**A/N) Hey everyone, sorry I took so long. I was having the worst writer's block ever, and I was a little busy. But I'm back now. Thanks for the reviews for last chapter, I love reading what you guys have to say about my work. Alright, so just a quick recap of last chapter: Damon turned Elena into a vampire and then he was attacked and vervained. **

**Everyone caught up now? Good. Enjoy and review. :)**

~ooOOoo~

"_You feed or you die, there is no door number three_." - Damon Salvatore.

.

.

Damon's head lolled to the side as his body began slowly drifting into consciousness. His entire body was over-run with a dull, venomous burning that pulsated steadily through his bloodstream. His eyes automatically opened as he saw the brief red glow of closed eyelids, and he was met with a light so bright he squinted. He blinked several times, a blurry image regaining slight focus as an iron door with bars. He knew _exactly_ where he was.

Everything came rushing back to him so fast, he cringed from where he was laying. He had turned Elena into a vampire, and became blinded to obstacles because of his vengeance. He could remember vividly the literally blood-bursting pain that Bonnie had induced on him, Caroline's saucer-widened eyes as she saw her best friend lying in a crumpled heap with blood, _his_ blood, around her mouth, and the vehemence Stefan was holding towards him when he jammed the vervain tranquilizer into his back from behind.

Damon couldn't say he regretted yesterday's events - was it even the day after everything had happened? He had no idea how long he had been out for - because he didn't, and he never would. If anything, turning Elena would be a wake-up call for her, and she would snap out of her delusion of how people should act, and the world around her should be. And if it didn't work, Damon would gladly put her out of her misery for the second time, with _no_ chance of resurrection.

He tried to push himself off of the rock he was propped aimlessly on, but the second he tried to move his arms, it felt like a huge force was bearing down on his muscles, rendering him immobile. This wasn't something he could fight, so Damon knew immediately it wasn't the vervain keeping him down. Bonnie must have put a spell on him.

"Finally, you're awake." A drawling voice floated through the bars. _Stefan_. Damon's mind growled at him. He squinted, his eyes easily making out the large forehead and frownlines of his brother's face. They were much more noticeable than usual, and Damon couldn't help but smirk, but then he frowned again, remembering his current predicament.

"Don't you have any other tactics?" He spat sourly, feeling the vervain's energy radiating off the plants and making his throat itch. "And what's your goal by putting me in here anyway?" Damon asked, this wasn't going to change anything, he would find a way to get out, and then he would be free to do as he pleased, he _would_ evade them the next time.

"I'm going to get the real you back." He said surely, sounding so firm in his belief that this man in front of him, laying in the cell after turning his ex-girlfriend into a vampire, wasn't his brother.

"Why does everyone think I'm broken!?" Damon would have screamed loud enough to shatter glass, but the vervain was keeping his voice down. "I'm not." His lips twitched very quickly into a dry smile. "Get that into your heads!" He hissed.

Stefan sighed, gripping the bars in his fingers. It was obvious he was frustrated with Damon saying that he was always like this, but Damon was equally frustrated - if not more - that Stefan and everyone else would deny the truth and ignore the monster in front of their eyes. "Maybe it's because you're off the deep end-"

"So what, you're gonna Lexi-fy me?" Damon cut in harshly. He was _not_ a Ripper, he was a _vampire_, he didn't need any of Lexi's special methods to help him. He didn't even need help, it was like Stefan was projecting his own problems and life onto him, expecting every vampire to turn out a Ripper once they consumed a drop of human blood. He was like that with Vicki, and Damon wanted to rip his head off.

"Good luck." He said snarkily. "I've bent that system before." He bragged. Stefan never could, because he always had something to come back to, and it always ended up working, but since Klaus was Damon's thing to "come back" to, it wouldn't work. Klaus would accept him, humanity, slightly twisted version of humanity or none at all.

"And maybe it's because you turned Elena into a vampire." Stefan said suddenly, lifting his head to stare him in the eyes. Damon bore them back, not giving him a single trace of emotion or guilt he was searching for. "Of all the idiotic things you've done, I can't believe that was one of them." He was remaining calm for some strange reason, while he imagined Elena crying and screeching hysterically that someone needed to fix her, or it wasn't supposed to happen, and she didn't want it.

"So, it was bound to happen anyway." Damon shrugged idly. She was surrounded by vampires, him, Stefan, Caroline, Katherine - not that she would be any help - and the easiest solution if she got hurt, was giving her blood. It was faster than what any hospital could do, and she should be grateful instead of whining that someone had saved her.

"Yes, by _me_, when she was ready to spend eternity with _me_." Damon's head snapped up, painfully jarring his neck - he could feel the weight beginning to lift off his chest - and he forced himself to sit up. As Stefan's words reached his ears, he couldn't help but think that this was all because Stefan was jealous that Elena had wanted him. Stefan was always jealous of him, but Stefan used to get everything while Damon didn't. That exposed Stefan as a spoiled little brat much more than any words could. "Not by you on one of your no-humanity rampages."

"My humanity's on!" Damon yelled, straining his throat.

"I don't believe that." Stefan shook his head, and Damon bit his tongue painfully to keep himself from ripping it into him. He would rather do it when people were around to listen. "You would never do anything to hurt Elena." He said.

"I would now." Damon shrugged, groaning as he moved slightly, scraping his back against the rock. "She's just a walking incarnate of Katherine, and I'll keep saying it until someone other than me wises up and realises it."

"Elena's completed her transition, just so you know." Stefan told him, his tone implying he was supposed to care about it.

"Good." Damon nodded, and Stefan moved slightly, his eyes shifting as he thought he had found a shred of humanity, but Damon was about to ram him head-first into a brick wall. "Now maybe she'll stop being such a pain in the ass when it comes to my bloodlust. Or vampires in general." Damon said, watching as everything about Stefan changed once more, becoming sombre once more. "And I hope she suffers with it." He spat.

"What happened to you?" Stefan asked in despair.

"Nothing." Damon's face was hardened. "This _is_ the real me, and you know it." He had been at his worst in 1888 with all the Jack the Ripper business

Stefan sighed deeply, rummaged inside his pocket. He poked a vial of blood through the bars, dropping it down into the cell. Damon's nose crinkled at the smell of animal blood, and he made no move to go over to it. He wouldn't touch it even if he was on the brink of death. He had never ingested such a low class of blood, and he was not about to start now. "I'm going to get you back." Stefan said surely.

"You mean the watered-down _good_ version of me?" Damon asked, and not waiting for a reply or a nod, he continued. "Good luck with that, little brother." He smiled at him. Stefan scoffed, shaking his head at him, and then left. Damon scowled at the sound of fading footsteps. He had to walk away from the truth instead of facing it, that was ultimately why he failed at being a vampire. He couldn't handle the truth that a vampire needed human blood, so he walked away from it and started drinking animals.

Damon's phone rang, snapping him out of his thoughts as the sound vibrated around the room. His hand shot into his pocket, silencing it quickly so as to not let Stefan know he still had it. But then again, his brother was in a hurry to get away from him, and so weak, that he probably wouldn't be able to. But what made him laugh, was why nobody bothered to take his phone away.

"Hello?" He said, coughing as his throat began rubbing him like sandpaper. He groaned in pain. It was a paradox, what was done to get rid of the burning, would hurt him even more.

"Damon it's me, I-" Klaus stopped, and then he asked in a more concerned - more concerned than Damon had ever heard him - tone: "What's happened to you?"

Damon coughed once more, trying to find his voice. "I turned Elena into a vampire, and revealed myself and now I'm vervained and locked in a cellar with them trying to "get the real me back"." He explained.

"What does that even mean?" Klaus asked, sounding dumbfounded.

"They mean the puppy-dog version who does everything Elena says and doesn't kill for fun." Damon whispered snarkily, trying not to aggravate his throat. "But, since I've given her eternal life, I'd rather skip the eternal servitude and morality sessions."

"How did they even get you into the cell?" Klaus asked.

Damon swallowed, trying to find a comfortable position. Once he settled into a moderately comfortable nook in the rocks, he started to speak. "Bonnie made my brain explode-"

"_Bonnie_, the little bitch." Klaus hissed in intervention. Damon couldn't have agreed more, but he had more important things to contend with, and hating on Bonnie in silence really wasn't going to do anything about the spell - or whatever it was - that she had put on him, or anywhere else.

"-And Stefan vervained me from behind." Damon added.

"I thought you were drinking it?" Klaus asked.

"I am." Damon said in annoyance. "It must have been some pretty strong stuff." He explained. "And the irony of it all, he's given me a teeny bit of _animal _blood." He reached over and nudged the pitiful ration with his foot, kicking it far away from his sight. He didn't even want to _look_ at it.

"I wish I could help, but I'm a bit preoccupied at the moment-"

"With hybrids again?" Damon cut in, feeling a little jealous.

Klaus sighed, clearly detecting it in his voice, but strangely he didn't press. "No, with Rebekah actually, she keeps running off." He said.

"Give her a leash." Damon chuckled.

"I've tried that, and she's taken her dagger so that isn't an option." Klaus growled.

"Well, do what you need to do, I'll be fine." Damon said. That would probably be a lie, but with Bonnie helping Stefan with his plan to humanity-fy him, he didn't want to see Klaus get hurt. Nobody would be able to kill him, but Bonnie could still channel the power of a hundred dead witches, and it would still hurt him, and give Stefan enough time to- _Enough Damon!_

There was a long pause down Klaus' end of the line, before he heard his voice, and he sounded _nervous_. "Damon, I..." He trailed off, and Damon became worried.

"What?" He asked.

"Never mind." Damon could tell Klaus was shaking his head. He was intrigued now, what could be so important that would make _Klaus_ nervous? Klaus didn't strike him as the kind of man who would be nervous about anything, and it was odd to say the least that Klaus was suddenly brushing it off like it was nothing. "I'll come and help you as soon as I'm able." Klaus promised, and Damon smiled at his tone, it was pure spite and vindication. He was sure heads would roll in Chicago, but what would happen to everyone who had hurt him, or was going to try... Well, it made Damon feel safe, added to the fact that Stefan wouldn't try to kill him, no matter how much he wanted to.

"I'll be here." He said dryly, hanging up the phone and ending the call. As he settled down in the darkness, he frowned momentarily. Now he would be thinking up all kinds of solutions as to what Klaus was going to say to him, but that would have to wait. Somebody was standing outside the cell, their soul trembling with anger and betrayal. One whiff of Chanel perfume told Damon exactly who it was.

"Caroline." He chimed with a grin, hearing her sharp in-take of breath from being found out. "No lurking without a permit." He sang as she came into view. Silver tear tracks were staining her face, and it sickened Damon to know that this girl was wasting her tears for someone who deserved the fate she was going to endure.

"How can you even look at yourself right now?" She said in a voice that was worn down from crying, and Damon rolled his eyes.

"Not easily, there's no mirror in here." He grinned at her, and her nostrils flared, her back straightening. "Don't tell me you've gone back to Dumb Blonde, carebear?" He teased her, coughing as the scent from the vervain plants began drying his throat out once more.

"What happened to you?" Caroline asked, and Damon groaned. It was the question to describe his life since he turned into a vampire and had gone through many personality changes in order to find his true self. Stefan was the one to ask it the most back then, especially after Elias, but now everyone was asking that to him. Everyone except Klaus. "You're an even bigger jack-ass than usual." Caroline's snip brought Damon back to reality, and he sat up.

"Why thank you." He smiled politely and Caroline's face hardened, although her teary eyes made the "threatening" stare more like an act, than a heartfelt action. "And nothing's happened, I've just broken out of my bubble, and by broken out of my bubble, I mean I'm done listening to all you idiots and your moral high-roads."

"Did you come to glare, gloat, or actually say something useful?" He asked, suddenly curious as to _why_ Caroline was there. Was she taunting him with the fact that she freedom to feed and be a vampire? Given that she only acted like one when she needed to be, or was she coming down to try and shame him for what he had done?

"Elena's devastated you did this to her, Damon." Caroline's voice wasn't laced with the hard-edged venom that he had been expecting, instead she sounded... _sympathetic_? If that was even the right word. Did she think he was just acting this way because all of Elena's constant back and forth with how she felt for him and denying it and then accepting it only to go back to square one, was _upsetting_ him? He was only upset when his mother died, it would have to take a lot more to get him to shed a tear now.

"And I'm supposed to care?" He waved Caroline off dismissively, but she stayed firmly on her spot, seemingly determined to try what Stefan couldn't. Get through to him. There was no getting through to him anymore, they already had. They had peeled back all the old layers, riddled and infected with stupid feelings and trivial human concerns, and what they found - the man that was now sitting in the cellar - was the cold, hard core of Damon Salvatore.

And if they didn't like it, screw them.

He'd play their stupid games, but he knew he wouldn't break first, they would. Because they didn't want to hurt him enough to kill him, he had nothing to be afraid of, and he certainly didn't fear any of them. Elena least of all, of course she was a vampire now, but her emotions were heightened and she was no doubt sobbing about unintentionally killing an animal or something, while Stefan was running around after her, leaving Caroline and Bonnie to hold down the fort.

"You should." Caroline said like it was a mandatory requirement, Damon ignored her. She was just as stupid and shallow from when she was human. Nothing had changed, if anything, the most annoying traits about her were amplified. As she stood looking at him, waiting for a response that she wasn't going to get, Damon discreetly eyed the necklace that was hung around her neck. "You love her-"

"_Loved_. Past tense, honey." He said, still studying her necklace. The chain was solid silver from the looks of it, and there was a pendant big enough to grab onto. "And be honest, you'd prefer her with my brother anyway, so it's useless trying to get me to feel bad about what I've done, because I don't." Caroline scoffed and began to walk away, but as she did, Damon's chance at escape was going with her.

With a surprising burst of speed he didn't know he had, he easily overpowered the vervain and leapt at the door. Caroline wasn't fast enough as he stuck his hands through the bars and grasped a hold of her necklace. Her hands flew up behind her to grab at his wrist, but he expertly twisted the chain as hard as he could. Caroline choked and struggled, but Damon wasn't going to let go. If he could bring her close to death, she would open the door for him.

Blood began trickling from her neck as the chain cut deeper and deeper into her skin as Damon kept twisting it relentlessly. He wasn't going to give up yet. He yanked her closer to the bars, resulting in her blood dripping onto his fingers and a cry escaping her mouth. "Let me out, Caroline." He hissed into her ear. She wasn't budging, she was still trying to fight him off. "I said, _let me out_." He hissed once more.

Getting no results except the latter, Damon roared in frustration, almost garrotting Caroline with the necklace. The chain was knotted up firmly around his fingers, and the gap between them and Caroline's neck was gone. She cried out in surprise, both hands tightening on his wrist in panic, as Damon pulled harder and her head was nearly severed from her neck.

Damon suddenly stumbled back as something broke the tether between him and Caroline. He stood up to see his brother at the cell door, eyes shooting sharp daggers into him. He heard a rush of air, and then Stefan speaking to him in a patronizing tone, similar to that of a four-year old being told not to touch the grill while it was on. "You just won't stop, will you?" He asked in disbelief.

Damon smashed his hands into the door, feeling his bones shake from the sheer force, but unfortunately, it didn't have the desired effect and he was still trapped. "You have no right to trap me in here!" He yelled.

"I do if you're tearing up half the town." Stefan told him, and Damon shook his head. It was _not_ Stefan's business who he killed, and no civilian - save the Founder's Council of course - was smart enough to figure out that the murders were caused by a vampire, and that that vampire was none other than the head of the Founder's Council. "And you turned Elena into a vampire." He reminded him coldly.

"So that's how it's gonna go, huh?" Damon smiled slyly and rested his heavy weight on his heels. "I do something stupid in your eyes and you always find a way to bring Elena into it." He observed, Stefan stayed silent, so he continued. "You think it's gonna make me regret everything, you're wrong. I don't regret _any_ of it, and I should have started sooner." He said mercilessly.

Stefan smashed his fist into the concrete wall beside the cell door, careful not to let Damon out because of a stupid mistake, and yelled out in frustration, trying to grab him through the bars, but Damon stayed out of his reach, taunting him. "Don't think for a moment that I won't kill you!" He roared, his fangs extending and the veins beneath his eyes popping.

"You _can't_." Damon gloated smugly and Stefan bitterly accepted defeat and stopped trying to grab him. "I'm stronger than you think, sure I'm down with vervain, but I could _still _take you on." He swore. "I've tapped into the Old Powers again." He smiled, Stefan couldn't even attempt to harness them in his dizziest day dreams, a lot of it came down to mental strength, not just human blood, as Elias had told him before introducing him to the idea of shape-shifting. "And even if you did kill me, you'd be wracked with guilt about it and would go off the deep end yet again."

"That's exactly why we're snapping you out of whatever _this_-" Stefan gestured towards him like he was an animal in a zoo. "Is, my way." He said firmly.

"It won't work." Damon sang happily, knowing he held the cards where he was concerned. They could chase their tails, but they would slip up along the way, and leave some kind of flaw for him to work with and gain his freedom.

"Yes it will." Stefan swore, nodding in determination. "Because I refuse to believe that you would turn Elena purely because of the arguments you've had lately."

"Are you that blind?" Damon snapped at him, coming closer to the door. He didn't care if Stefan could grab him, he had had enough strength to nearly kill Caroline, he could at least snap his brother's hand with what strength he had left. "Don't make her out to be the victim in all of this, she's just as much to blame as I am." He pointed out. "If she hadn't pushed my buttons, she wouldn't be in this mess and I'd be free to kill whoever the Hell I want."

Stefan's face suddenly turned smug, and he folded his arms with a smile on his face. "Alaric's coming soon, and when he does-"

"Oh, you didn't hear?" Damon cut him off in a simpering, sweet tone. "Alaric's dead." He said, not a trace of emotion in his voice. "And that's _dead_ dead. Not ring-dead." He confirmed.

Stefan's mouth hung partially open, before he shook his head and rounded on him again. "You...?" He asked in disbelief, Damon nodded without the slightest hint of remorse. "Why would you do that?" He asked. "He was your _friend_." He emphasized the word "friend" but Damon didn't have any. He only had Klaus, and he wasn't sure what label to give him yet, he was pretty sure Klaus felt the same way about him.

"He was in the way, and I was by Elena's school, so I figured, why not? One less problem to deal with." He said spitefully. Stefan said nothing, and walked away from him for the second time that day. "Hah, walk away in denial instead of facing the truth?" He called to Stefan's back, watching him disappear from the stony corridor. "It's just like you Stefan!" He called again.

"At least I'm not ashamed of who I am!"

Damon chuckled to himself and paced around the cell, trying to get the feeling back in his legs. He was sweating from the lack of air coming through the cellar, and the vervain didn't help. Inhaling it's scent was like a human breathing in carbon monoxide, and not breathing was a difficult task. It wasn't a necessity for vampires, but Damon rarely went without breathing since he was around townsfolk nearly day. Choosing not to breath was an option for vampires who lived in solitude, or who were trying to play dead to the point of being transported to the hospital to get a quick meal and a blood supply.

Feeling extremely bored, Damon strained his ears to hear whatever was being spoken upstairs. It always helped whenever he had a slight upper hand on those who were trying to hurt him.

"H-He _killed_ him..." Elena's broken voice stuttered, and Damon smirked. Stefan had dropped the bombshell that Alaric was dead, and by the sounds of it, he didn't sugar coat it like nearly everything else he told her. "Oh my God." She gasped.

"Elena, he's not stable right now." Stefan said softly, and Damon guessed that Stefan had stopped her from marching down to the cellar and trying to kill him for killing her last remaining guardian.

"Alaric was the only person Jeremy and I had left to take care of us, Stefan!" Elena was wailing through her tears, and Damon took pleasure in the fact she have looked a mess; her emotions were running wild with her, and she had no control over them. "Damon even killed him, again! I-" She broke off mid-sentence, and grunted in frustration. Then there was a smash.

"Elena, there's still a chance he could come back." Stefan said slowly, and Damon scoffed. _Now_ he was sugar-coating it. She wasn't special, she wasn't this divine entity that needed worshipping and protecting from danger. " Damon started the fire, and he's a vampire." He pointed out, although Damon was positive Alaric would not be back.

"Let me talk to him." Elena said suddenly, standing up from the chair she had been sat in. Damon was in no position to talk to her; he was in a cell with no chance of escape, and he didn't fancy cramming himself through the window just to get away from her, and result in looking like a box. "Stefan, I should be able to get through to him." She said gently. "He loves me." She sounded so sure that it sickened him, and put a whole new spin on the word "idiotic".

"You wish..." He muttered bitterly.

"Elena, just leave it to me Stefan and Caroline." Stefan was saying softly, and no doubt stroking her face softly. "It's too dangerous for you." He warned her.

"What are you doing?" Elena asked, and Damon heard the presence of another body join them in the parlour.

"I'm re-administrating the barrier spell I put up around the house." Bonnie's voice said, and Damon growled. Even if Klaus had swept through Mystic Falls on a warpath to get him back, he wouldn't have been able to get into the house. "And I've found a spell that will send Damon to sleep." She informed them, and Damon knew he was doomed as he smelt sage burning above them.

Lights flickered all around the house, and a light breeze from the small window began whistling through the cellar. "_Ex ignea puteos Inferno hoc deuia nec iumentum, et faciam eum dormiatque in quaestu pro sanguine prohibere eum_." Bonnie began chanting in a foreign language, amplifying the small malfunctions that were going on around him, and Damon felt his eyes droop. "_Quod docti sunt oculis tantum videre prædam enervat_." The spell went on, and Damon's legs instantly gave out, becoming a deadweight as he thudded to the ground. "_Spiritus terrae ad te clamavi super hoc animal ad quietem_."

The last words of the spell faded into his mind, and everything went into a pleasant haze of darkness.

~ooOOoo~

_Damon was lifted from his sleep-ridden thoughts with a thud. He sat up, startled, and looked around hurriedly. His vision was extremely blurred, but he could tell in an instant that he wasn't in the cellar anymore. He could see mixtures of greens, blues and purples and the fuzzy outline of dark rocks. As he fought with his eyelids, he heard... __**water**__ rushing? What was going on?_

_Everything came to slowly above him, and a dark shape flitted around the blue wave of the sky. Damon blinked and stood up, coming face to face with a place he thought had died along with his mother. He soon realised the dark shape was a blackbird, the blackbird he transformed into. It cawed out to him over the sound of rushing water, and took flight again, unfurling it's wings and flapping away._

_Damon was right in the middle of The Falls, where he used to go with his mother when he was human. The grass was deep green, the sky was bluer than lapis lazuli, and the flowers were a kaleidoscope of different colors, pinks, lavender, reds and blues as far as the eye could see. And the roaring waterfall, ever present in it's majesty, was pouring forth brilliant blue water, topped with foam crashing down into the large rock pool below._

_He saw the large log where he used to sit, and walked over to it, running his fingers over it. He used to come here all the time when he was younger, it relieved some strain from his life since his father was constantly victimizing him and beating him - although when he had gotten older, and a head taller than Giuseppe, the old coot had stopped - while he favoured Stefan and quickly distincted the two brothers. Stefan was the favourite, the good boy, and the Golden Child. Damon was the Devil in human form, a mistake to humanity, and the Unwanted One._

_Sighing, he rubbed a hand over his face, and felt light pressure on his shoulder, and a gentle voice. "Damon." It whispered, and he smiled. He'd know that accent anywhere. He turned and saw the familiar blond hair and shining eyes that he had become so acquainted with._

_"Klaus?" He asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?" Nobody knew about this place's sentimental value to him, so how was he here?_

_"Damon, wake up." He said suddenly, and Damon's brows furrowed in confusion._

_"What?" He asked._

_"Wake up, Damon." Klaus' tone was slightly more urgent, and Damon swore he saw glimpses of fear in his eyes. "They're going to kill you." He warned him. Who was going to kill him?_

_Damon just shook his head. "I don't-"_

_Klaus suddenly grabbed his shoulders, tight enough to bruise and crush bone, pulling him forwards. "Damon __**wake up**__!"_

The echoing urgency in Klaus' voice made Damon's eyes snap open abruptly. His eyes adjusted a little quicker than usual. He was definitely in a different room; it was much dimmer than the cellar, and he could just about make out a Persian rug near the fireplace. It didn't escape his notice that it had a fire poker burning in it. Damon tried moving his arms to get his bearings, but they were too heavy, he couldn't move his legs either.

He blinked rapidly, his vision finally clearing up. He was in the parlour, and the curtains were drawn. With a growl, he looked down at his hand, and his ring was missing. His wrists were shackled tightly to the arms of a chair and his ankles were shackled to the legs of the chair. Stefan had also found Mason Lockwood's werewolf transformation chains and made good use of them, bounding his body to the chair so he could only freely move his head.

"Stefan..." He growled to an empty room. "I'm gonna kill you." He swore. What right did his brother have to do this to him? If everybody hated him, why were they trying so hard to keep him in their lives? Damon knew the answer in an instant, he used to be the one that saved everyone without question, _that_ was why they wanted him around. It wasn't for anything else, he was just a bug that they could flick away once they were done with him.

He'd show them all.

"Stefan's not here, Damon." Damon groaned internally at a voice. He forced himself to turn his head towards the source, and found Elena sitting in an armchair - _his_ armchair - across from him. She looked like she had only now stopped crying, and the odd thing was, she wasn't bearing him down with angry eyes, she was looking at him with desperation. "He had to go and hunt." She told him softly.

"What's going on?" Damon snapped at her. "Why are you even here? Shouldn't you be sobbing to someone about how unfair and mean I was to you?" He smirked at her, but the desperation in her eyes didn't falter. Damon knew she was trying to get through to him, being the only person that could before, but she held no power over him anymore, and if she was going to find that out the hard way, then so be it.

"I don't know." She shrugged, and Damon then figured out quickly that she had no part in tying him to the chair. Elena then pushed herself off the armchair, and walked over to where he was, resting against the arm of the sofa directly opposite him. "And I'm here because I want to be." She said, raising her chin in a form of defiance. Damon wasn't going to stop her from being there, he didn't care about _that_, he just wanted to know what the hell was going on.

"I turned you into a vampire." He said cruelly, watching Elena's eyes flicker with now very sensitive emotions. "Something you didn't want, much less ask for. In the literal sense anyway." He added. Then he said more forcefully: "_Why_ are you here?"

Elena sighed again, and walked over to him. She took his face in her hands, and he let her. "I just want answers, Damon." She was almost pleading with him. If she was a normal person, she would be tearing up the house and trying to kill him right now, but instead she wanted _answers? _When Stefan had forced him to turn, he didn't want answers, he wanted _vengeance._

"Fine." Damon said softly, giving over. If she wanted answers, she was going to get them. He looked directly into her eyes, brown connecting with blue like they once used to. "I did this because you're an annoying, whiny, little bitch who needs to grow up and face reality." He said harshly. Elena recoiled, releasing his face in horror. She stepped back from him, but that wasn't going to stop him. "You need to know what it means to be a vampire before you go slandering me off about being a psychopathic murderer." He growled at her.

"Which is exactly what you are." She was looking down, clearly hurt and betrayed that he would fake their once-there-connection. That was gone, just like his feelings for her.

"No I'm not!" This time, Damon could yell, and he kept on yelling. It was the only way to make her see sense now. Turning her into a vampire clearly hadn't done the job. "I'm a vampire!" He flashed his fangs at her, and she took a step back. "I hunt, and I _kill_." Elena shook her head in desperation at that, her eyes shining with unshed tears. She was only upset because she was losing control over him. Control that Klaus now held. "It's part of the package, and if you can't handle it, come a bit closer and I'll gladly rip your heart out."

"What's gotten into you?" Elena asked, her voice rising as anger was visible on her face. Damon smirked at that. "You're acting like a child!" She yelled at him.

"More like frustrated man." He countered. "I've had it with you, I've had it with everyone, I've had it with this _town_!" He smacked the back of his head on the chair and groaned. "_Every five seconds_, someone's yelling at me for acting like a vampire." He growled. "I don't care if it bothers anyone, I am a vampire, so I will _be_ a vampire. Not the watered-down sparkly delusion you're thinking of." He said a little more quietly.

"Is that why you did this?" Elena said softly. She was _still_ hoping she could get through to him? He had a last resort, but if that didn't work, he would just kill her when he got free. Just like everyone else.

"I did it so you would suffer." He grinned at her, as her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "I killed Alaric, purely so you would suffer, and guess what Princess? He ain't coming back." He said harshly. Elena suddenly started shaking her head and panting rapidly, mumbling "no, no, no" to herself over and over.

"B-But, y-you're a vampire, the ring will-"

"I roasted him to a crisp." Damon boasted, and her eyes widened in utter shock. "And all his students too, not before making a meal out of some of them of course." He licked his lips in remembrance, and Elena stood there, frozen. She let out a pitiful sob, and collapsed to the ground as her legs gave out. She began screaming and sobbing into her hands, and Damon could never have pictured anything more annoying.

"Go ahead, sit there and cry like a little baby." He spat at her.

She sniffled, wiping her tears away with the corner of her sleeve. "You think grieving someone's death makes me weak?" She asked in shock, looking up at him through teary eyes.

"Yes, I do." He nodded. "You grieve _everyone's_ death, which is exactly why you won't last two seconds as a vampire out in the big, wide world without any help." He told her. "But of course, you'll have it easy with a support group while the rest of us had to learn the hard way." He knew that was the reality of it, whenever poor little Elena couldn't handle something, everybody flocked to her, but when he and Stefan were adjusting to being vampires, they didn't have help. Damon didn't until Elias did anyway, but he brought out the sadistic side in him, while Lexi brought out the good side in Stefan. Neither of them made things easier or a cushy ride through it for either brother, they just helped them find themselves along the way.

"Is that what you think?" She asked indignantly, her voice still laced with tears.

"It's what I know." He growled. "To everyone you're this precious trophy, the crown jewel, but to me, you're nothing but an annoyance who needs to be wiped off the face of the Earth." She took a step back and more tears spilled over her eyes.

As his last words sunk into her, the front door slammed shut, and Stefan stormed into the parlour, eyes blazing at him as he wrapped Elena into his arms, silently gloating that he had her again, but he didn't care. Stefan could have her, he had Klaus.

"Don't listen to him, Elena." He reassured her gently while stroking her hair to calm him down. "He's being compelled." He said, and Damon felt like smashing his head against the chair again. Everyone chose to believe the alternative because they couldn't face the truth, even though Damon had given it to them over and over.

"What are you talking about Stefan?" Damon shifted in the chair, flexing his fingers as they were becoming numb from the shackles cutting off the blood flow. "I've made it pretty clear several times that I'm not compelled, and my humanity isn't off." He said.

"It's the only explanation." Stefan said to himself and Elena, ignoring Damon. Damon's nostril's flared angrily, and he nearly screamed out in anger. It was like he was trapped in a bubble, yelling while his insults and epithets fell on deaf ears.

"Did you not hear what I've been saying?" Damon asked incredulously. Stefan, and now Elena, had advanced hearing, he of all people should have heard. Damon wouldn't be at all surprised if Stefan's brain was twisting the words around so it sounded different to him. "Or is there a rock concert going on in your head?" He spat snarkily.

"Klaus compelled him to act this way." Stefan held Elena at arms length, completely ignoring Damon. Elena looked at Damon with a hint of confusion, before flitting her eyes back to Stefan. Damon leaned back in the chair, Stefan was half right, Klaus hadn't compelled him, but merely opened his eyes. "With me, it was the blood that was doing it, but Damon has control, it's the only way he would do this." Stefan explained.

"Hello?" Damon sang idly, sick of being ignored. "I'm chained to a chair right here." He said sarcastically. Stefan was speaking like he wasn't sat_ right there_.

"But Damon's been on vervain." Elena said, at least she could think rationally about things.

"No, the last time he drank it was before Tyler bit him, and his werewolf venom burnt out all the vervain in his system." Stefan explained. Damon furrowed his brows at that. How did Stefan know that? He hadn't been bitten before, had he? If so, Damon was certain it wasn't possible. His body may have been burning, but his body temperature wouldn't have burned the vervain out. "He was a liability to be compelled."

"Sound logic there, Stef." Damon commended him sarcastically, with a smile. "But it's wronger than wearing stripes and tartan together." He countered. "God, I sound like Caroline..." He groaned.

Stefan finally turned to look at him, folding his arms. He was looking at him like he was beneath him. "Prove it." He challenged him.

"How?" Damon asked incredulously. "Do you want me to strip naked and give you a lap dance or something?" He said, grinning as Stefan and Elena cringed. He then bore his eyes into his brother's, leaning as far forward as the chains around his chest would allow him. "I'm. Not. Compelled." He spat each word at them with venom, and Stefan's eyes fell. Damon cheered on the inside, he was finally understanding.

"Then it must be something other to do with Klaus." Stefan said, now speaking to him rather than himself or Elena. Damon grinned, Stefan was getting closer to the truth, but he was going to tunnel in the wrong direction and would never find the treasure. Not unless Damon told him. "You've been acting differently since you confronted him in Chicago." Stefan said. "He's corrupted you."

Damon smiled eerily, laying back in the chair. "When did you figure that out?" He asked smoothly.

"I put two and two together." Stefan said while Elena stood there, absorbing all this new information. "You would never hurt Elena, Klaus has influenced you, this isn't you." He said.

"Yes." Damon hissed out agonizingly. "It, _is_." He spat.

"No it's not, Damon." Stefan shook his head. Damon's rage was getting so strong, he felt like he would be able to tear through the chains and rip the pair of them in half. They were so smug, it was unbelievable. They actually believed everything they said was the truth, but Damon was going to prove them wrong. "It's Klaus' influence over you-"

"Hate to break it to you Stefan, but he hasn't influenced me at all." Damon spat. That was truth in itself, Klaus had opened his eyes to the way of others, but him hating them was all on his own grounds. Klaus had never said he must hate them, or tempted him. Not at first. "My thoughts, my feelings, my actions are all my own, _not his_." He glared at Stefan. "And I've done much worse than killing." He began flaunting his secret right in their faces. "Well, worse in your books anyway." He smiled.

"You've been with him?" Elena asked in shock.

"More than been, Elena." He smirked at her, and Stefan groaned in disgust while Elena looked heartbroken. Not that he cared. "I am with him. So much so that I know he _loves_ it rough." He chuckled at them.

"Alright, we have to do this now." Stefan said suddenly, and Damon was confused once more. "Elena, call Bonnie and get her to hurry up with the barrier spell, it's weakening again." She nodded and rushed off using her newfound vampire-speed. "Caroline!" Stefan yelled, knowing she could hear him from where she was. "Get the vervain from the cellar!" He called to her, and Damon heard shuffling from upstairs.

Stefan then ripped one of the shackles of off Damon's wrist, grabbing it in a tight hold. Damon hissed at him, baring his fangs. He wasn't strong enough to fight his brother off, which made him wonder exactly what he had used to sedate him yesterday. "What the hell are you doing!?" He growled, fighting his steel grip.

Stefan punched him around the face, and he was stunned momentarily, not noticing that Stefan had taken hold of the curtain. It was one thing to get slapped by Elena, but when it was his brother, it was different. "We're going to force your infatuation to Klaus out of you." Stefan wasted no more time, and yanked the curtain open, exposing Damon's unprotected flesh to the sunlight.

Damon screamed in pain as his arm began to burn up in flames.

~ooOOoo~

**(A/N) Sorry if this sucked, I think it was alright. Now, a lot of you may be wondering why I haven't had Klaus in there tearing up bodies yet, or why I made Damon say to him he could handle it on his own, it's because it's vital to the next chapter - people are gonna hear some surprising stuff - that Klaus stays away until then. Besides, Bonnie had put a barrier spell up, and no, I did **_**not**_** add that in as a last minute idea either, ya little scamps. ;-P**

**Also, I'm so very sorry if this wasn't up to your usual standards, I'm only human, although people wonder... xD. There'll be very minimal action next chapter, but it's 'cause I'm mostly gonna focus on the things that are being said next chapter. :)**

**Okay, before anyone spots it and says anything, I put in the fact that Bonnie could channel the witches, because I couldn't remember if he knew or not, seeing as this is set from pretty early on in season 3.**

**Now I've got ya guessin' and dyin' of suspense, review with your thoughts and I'll see you next time.**

**.**

**Latin Translator (I did it with Google translator, but then who doesn't?)**

**From the fiery pits of Hell this beast does roam, make him sleep and stop him in his quest for blood. Eyes that are trained to see only prey will weaken. Spirits of the land, I call on you to put this beast to rest.** - _Ex ignea puteos Inferno hoc deuia nec iumentum, et faciam eum dormiatque in quaestu pro sanguine prohibere eum. Quod docti sunt oculis tantum videre prædam enervat. Spiritus terrae ad te clamavi super hoc animal ad quietem._


	8. Chapter 8

**(A/N) Sorry about the wait guys, my inspiration was slipping. Now, I didn't realise until I checked my schedule for this story, but this chapter is gonna be the second to last one, meaning there's only this chapter, and chapter 9 left before this thing is completed. I think I'm quite happy with the ending I've got fleshed out already, and I'm sorry to say I won't be doing a sequel, but I will be doing a bunch of Klamon stuff to launch off my new stories that are coming soon, so keep an eye out for them.**

**Alright, so last chapter I left Damon with a burning arm, let's see how our boy's doing, shall we? I'm sorry that its short, but tell me what you thought. The next chapter will be possibly a lot longer. **

~ooOOoo~

"_When it's real, you can't walk away_." - Lexi Branson

.

.

Damon's screams of pain were falling on his own ears but were a foreign sound to him. He had never screamed like this in his entire life, nor had he felt pain like this before. The fire from the sunlight was blistering his skin and tearing it apart. Stefan only looked on solemnly, and Damon couldn't help but think he was gloating inside, enjoying every second of his pain because Elena had wanted to choose Damon and not him.

It seemed like forever when Stefan finally twitched, reluctantly pulling the curtain shut - and confirming Damon's silent suspicions - and shielding his skin from the sun. The fire flickered on his skin dully before it sizzled out, extinguished by Damon's supernatural healing. He gasped in relief, feeling his skin regenerate, and giving his brother a murderous stare.

"Are you out of your freaking mind!?" He yelled hoarsely, struggling effortlessly against his restraints. Stefan pushed himself off the wall he was leant on, and came forward.

"No, but you are." He said softly, Damon had had just about enough of this. It was bad enough he was stupid enough to get himself caught, now he was the victim while his brother was trying to torture him back to normal. Why were they so sure it was going to work? There was nothing to force out of him, especially not an infatuation. He was a locked box with nothing inside, and they were the ones who would spend forever trying to open the box, only to find nothing.

"You can't exactly talk!" Damon yelled again, _not in the mood_ of keeping on civil terms at this point. "You're the one torturing me!" He screamed, his veins and fangs shooting out no matter how much it hurt. He tried to relax, and they retreated.

"Because, well let's count the list of reasons, shall we?" Stefan said in a slightly louder tone, and Damon didn't miss his sarcasm. He was loving every second of this, the smug bastard. What was his real plan? Catch the bad guy so Elena will be so grateful she'll come running back to him? Damon wouldn't be so quick to judge if she hadn't suddenly transferred her affections to him after "thinking things over" after their argument. "You've left a trail of bodies across Mystic Falls, _innocent_ people-"

"So have you." Damon cut him off, smirking. "Ripper of Monterey." His brother wasn't a Saint despite what everyone else thought. Just because he had changed and became the walking definition of humanity, it didn't mean it had erased all the skeletons in the closet. He had tried to, filling everyone's heads with the image he wanted to create for himself, but Damon was around back then, it wasn't going to work.

"-You threatened Elena's friends, murdered Elena's brother, and turned Elena into a vampire." Stefan went on. Damon didn't care, they were all still alive, Jeremy thanks to his Gilbert ring, and Elena as a vampire, but Stefan should be grateful he hadn't killed them. He had Elena's life in the palm of his hands that day, he could have snuffed his "precious love" out in an instant, but he kept her alive to torment the both of them.

"Yeah, I'll admit, that was nasty, but it's nothing they didn't deserve." He leaned back in the chair, feeling more comfortable than he had.

"And the people you killed?" Stefan asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"I'm at the top of the food chain, I don't care about them." Damon said proudly. "You don't see lioness' worried about killing innocent baby gazelles do you?" He smirked. Although he was being sarcastic, there was some truth in what he said; a predator couldn't change it's prey.

"That's different." Stefan shook his head, determined to believe that he was right.

"No it's not, it's exactly the same." Damon retorted. "Lions kill to survive, so do vampires." He pointed out.

"But we have a choice, they don't." Stefan countered, and Damon nearly smashed his head against the back of the chair. He had given up struggling, it was obvious he wasn't going anywhere any time soon, but he was still a force to be reckoned with.

"Alright, away from the furry animals for a second." Damon said. "You only think we have a choice because _you_ want to try and be as human as possible in your stupid little quest to push down your true nature, and that is why you crack each and every time." He explained, malice growing in his voice. "It's nothing to do with control, I could teach you that, it's because you _fight_ it." He spat. "Fight and control are two different things."

Stefan was silent, staring him down with a look that could kill. Damon smirked in triumph, he was finally getting under his brother's skin. He'd crack soon, before he did.

"What's the matter?" He taunted mercilessly. "Know I'm right?" Stefan clenched his fists and unclenched them, staring him down. "You won't kill me." Damon smirked.

"What makes you so-" Stefan began.

"Sure?" Damon finished for him. "Well the fact that you said you were going to force my "infatuation" to Klaus away pretty much guaranteed my immunity." He chuckled.

"Not completely." Stefan hissed, and drove the stake into Damon's leg, further pinning him to the chair. Damon growled lowly as pain thudded through his leg, he then stared up at his brother icily.

"Talk about a temper tantrum..." He murmured, watching Stefan become more and more frustrated with him. "Why are you so sure this is going to work?" Damon asked him. He failed to see how chaining him to a chair, staking and burning him was going to stop him having feelings for Klaus. Nothing could, and what brought Damon some small relief was that none of Stefan's plans had worked. Locking him in the cellar didn't work, and sending Lexi to find him and bring his humanity back in the 1970's didn't work either.

"It's our only other option." Stefan said like they were trying to save the world from an asteroid. "Elijah's daggered so he can't compel Klaus out of your mind." He said.

"Aw, what a shame." Damon pouted sarcastically, then he turned completely serious. "You can't compel feelings away." He said lowly, feeling his cheeks flame as he said that. He suddenly felt like a high-school girl confiding in her best friends over her first crush or her first time with that guy from across the street she really liked.

"No, but thanks to Bill Forbes, we can repress them." Stefan told him, and Damon furrowed his eyebrows at him. "Caroline called him about how he can resist compulsion-"

"How did she know that?" Damon cut him off. He had never heard of a human being able to resist compulsion without vervain. And what did it have to do with the fact his brother had gone into complete psycho mode and was trying to "repress" his feelings for Klaus?

"Not important." Stefan snapped briskly and Damon made a surrender position as best he could with his arms shackled down, and motioned for Stefan to continue. "And he said that he trained his mind. So, if we... _train_ your mind to think of pain every time you think of Klaus, your feelings will go and we'll have Damon back." He declared.

"Smart plan, except there's one problem." Damon was ready to bring this whole thing crashing down on his brother no matter how pathetic he sounded. "I love him." He said with no restraint. There was the thought that Klaus didn't love him back bubbling away in the back of his mind, but there wasn't anything about the interaction between them that made Damon believe that.

"What?" Stefan's eyes widened slightly and he looked like Damon had just slapped him.

"I. Love. Him." Damon slowly spat the words into Stefan's face, becoming braver and more confident that his ridiculous plan wasn't going to work with every passing second. "And you can't take that away from me because it's impossible." He said surely.

"How can you love a monster?" Stefan asked, sounding betrayed. It was ironic for him to say that, seeing as they had _both_ fallen in love with Katherine at some point, and Stefan was known as the Ripper of Monterey to vampires and he had been the object of Elena's affections up until recently.

"How could Elena love _you?_" Damon countered smartly, making Stefan go quiet. "You're a Ripper." He emphasised harshly, trying to undo his brother's plan from the source and stop it in its tracks. "A blood-sucking monster just like the rest of us." He said in a silk-like drawl, his eyes glowering as they studied Stefan.

"Elena, take over." Damon looked up to see Elena walking forwards from the corner she had been stood in. If she hadn't moved, Damon would have forgotten she was there. "I'm going to see if there's anything Bonnie can do." He pulled a stake out of his pocket, thrusting it into Elena's arms before he walked out of the parlour, leaving them both alone.

Elena twirled the stake hesitantly between her fingers, walking towards him. Damon was waiting for her to plunge it into his body repeatedly, her anger showing in each of the blows, but nothing came. She just stood there, silently teasing him with her freedom whilst looking at him with pity he really didn't want from her.

"Well go on." Damon motioned for her to make a move of vengeance. "Hurt me, I did turn you into a vampire after all." He goaded, trying to get her angry to cause a scene from her. He didn't know how much her rage would be amplified since she was never a particularly angry person as a human. "Get mad, get revenge." He smirked.

"Is this just all a big game to you?" Elena folded her arms in disbelief. "Make us think you have feelings for Klaus?" She spat. Damon was surprised by that, but he knew it was only because he wasn't worshipping her like a goddess on an altar and licking the ground she walked on.

"I do love him Elena." Damon admitted, although not giving a damn if she didn't believe him. She would soon enough. "You're just pissed I'm not professing my undying love for you." He growled. "But you never wanted it. You only wanted my attention, you wanted to know I was going to be there for you and when you thought I was slipping away you did something to bring me back." He glowered at her and she almost wilted under her gaze like a pathetic flower.

"That isn't true!" She shook her head in frustration, something akin to a light giddy smile appearing on her face. "Damon I was just confused about how I felt!" She declared happily, her eyes shining. "But when this is over we can be together." She whispered softly, coming closer to cup his face.

Damon growled and ripped himself from her hold, snarling enough to make her step back. "Have you lost your mind?" He was nearly yelling. "I don't love you, in fact, I _hate_ you." He spat. She shook her head again, and Damon groaned. Everyone was pinning everything that was going on with him down to the fact that his humanity was off, but it was still very much there, only they thought humanity meant that he would be nice and cuddling puppies.

"Damon, y-you're just lashing out." Elena stammered like he was a raging lunatic, but Damon shook his head with a grin to rival the Joker's and her eyes widened once more. Her perfect little world was slowly crumbling to pieces, starting with Damon, who was apparently a huge piece.

"No, I'm really not." He said nonchalantly, smiling as now in her heightened state, her breakdown was becoming more and more apparent. "I mean it." He made sure to drive each word into her like a stab with the stake she was holding. "Klaus is the one I love, not you, and it never will be again! Not after the pain you've caused me." He wanted her to feel the pain of rejection, feel the shatter of her heart as it was broken by the one she loved.

"You're lying." Elena was close to tears and was shaking her head so much that her hair was whipping back and forth and Damon thought that her neck was going to snap and her head was going to fall off. "I remember what you compelled me to forget." She said, trying to find a leg to stand on. "Two things actually. The first was that I met you before I met Stefan, and the second was that you told me you loved me." She said proudly, like it still meant something to him.

"They were all in the past." Damon said cynically, ripping the proverbial plaster off faster than Elena could blink. She was desperately trying to keep a hold of the situation, on _him_, but he had his own mind, unlike her mindless worshippers. "My feelings for you are now in the past." He brushed her off just like she brushed his love away all those times.

"No, you're just pushing them away because you're trying to get over me." She was reasoning more with herself than with him, trying to convince herself to stay sane. "But, Damon this doesn't have to be hard anymore!" She smiled eerily, enough to make Damon try to back away from her in the chair. "I love you and you love me."

"No I don't!" Damon yelled so loud he heard birds squawk and dart off the trees outside the house. "Why would I love a woman who has broken my heart more times than I can count to fight for her so-called "epic love" who co-incidentally is my own brother?" He snarled at her.

"Damon-"

"I'm not your go-to guy that you can profess your love for when you all of a sudden decide the one that you already have fighting everything for you isn't enough." He cut her off before she had the chance to say anything else that would pass her off as delirious. "Why isn't my brother enough?" He asked her in a slightly softer tone. "Why do you have to have us both?" Damon nearly did a double-take, he felt like he was having a conversation with Katherine.

"Both?" Elena shook her head, giving him a dazed smile. "I only want you." She said happily.

"And then Stefan, and then back to me, and then-" He stopped talking immediately as Elena slapped him across the face. He turned to look at her, glaring at her. As a vampire, her slap stung through his entire body, leaving his heart pounding rapidly as blood pulsed angrily through his veins.

"Shut up Damon!" She screamed senselessly, slipping up and losing control of her emotions. Damon smiled as he began worming his way under her skin. Footsteps at the door stopped her in her screaming.

"What's going on?" Caroline appeared at the door and walked into the room, giving him a devilish snarl that really didn't suit her. She wrapped her arms around Elena who was rocking back and forth, looking like she didn't know whether to cry or punch her surroundings in a rage fit.

"She hit me is what's going on." Damon spat venomously. Elena didn't understand the meaning of the words "Don't ever do that again". She clearly thought that it didn't apply to her, or if it did, for a few hours at best.

"Can't say you don't deserve it." Caroline crossed her arms with a haughty look across her face. "You deserve everything you're going to get." She whispered cruelly. Damon just chuckled at her, what did she think she could do to him? She was a baby vampire, so was Elena, and Stefan was losing it with him.

"So do all of you." He said cryptically in an icy tone.

"What does that mean?" Caroline asked, clearly not in the mood to play his games.

"Can't tell." Damon chuckled, grinning eerily as he flashed two rows of white teeth. "But maybe Elena's in need of a girl talk?" He offered, trying another way to get them both out of the room. "She's confused about her feelings." He pouted sarcastically.

"I'm not!" She screamed at him through her red-hot tears. "I don't love Stefan anymore Damon!" She was now feeling how hard it had been to convince her she felt the same way, the night he killed Jeremy. She was now speaking to the unbreakable wall that she had put up so many times around him. She broke his heart, now he was breaking hers. There was something dreadfully poetic about that.

"A few months ago I would have loved hearing that." Damon admitted. "But now, all I can say is you're a spoiled brat who has everything she doesn't deserve. Stefan and I are too good for you, and if Caroline and Bonnie had half a mind they'd sever ties with you and become badass besties."

"Bonnie once said everything that happens in Mystic Falls is my fault, actually it's not." He went on. "The part where her Grams died could have been stopped if you hadn't been so selfish to want Stefan and me out of the tomb. It was hurting them both to do it, and even I could see it. Granted I didn't care at that point, but I was happy to have been left in there." Nothing had been there at that point; Katherine was _gone_ and he no longer trusted his brother, he would have been fine.

"You both would have desiccated." Elena said with a slightly humourless laugh. It was brazen and didn't suit her at all.

"I'd rather desiccate than sit here talking to you." Damon hissed and she was thrown back into her tidal-wave high emotions, sobbing them out. "Get her out of here." He ordered Caroline. "_Now_." He finalised as she was unmoving. With a last dirty glare at him, Caroline flinched and consoled Elena before walking away from him.

Damon felt a small wave of victory as Caroline practically escorted Elena out of the room, relaxing. He enjoyed the calm serenity without the teenage drama buzzing around him or the sound and smell of his own burning flesh playing on a loop in his ears over and over again while his brother's attempts at saving him slowly drove him closer to the edge of insanity.

His thoughts were rudely interrupted as his phone began ringing inside his pocket. Damon squirmed, struggling to free his hands to answer it. He had an extremely good idea of who it was trying to call him, but he couldn't grab it.

Stefan walked into the room and came over to him. He chuckled at Damon's fruitless efforts, before delving into his front pocket and pulling out his ringing phone, scanning it with prying eyes. He pressed the green button, smirking in full few of Damon, who flared his nostrils heatedly.

"Hi Klaus." Stefan chirped down the phone with a sardonic grin. Damon could almost sense his anger and slight surprise from down the phone. Damon was beyond mad at this point, Stefan had no right, and all he was doing was getting himself a larger vendetta against Klaus. "Oh, Damon's here, but you're not going to speak to him." He said, leaning back against the liquor cart.

"You'll only manipulate him further." Stefan spat. Damon's anger flared up, making him literally hot under the collar. Who was Stefan to speak on his behalf? Speak of his feelings which he knew nothing about. "Hah, you don't know the meaning of that word, Klaus." Stefan chuckled down the phone, and Damon craned his neck to cry and hear their conversation. What did Klaus say to him?

"Bye Klaus, have a nice time trying to get through Bonnie's barrier spell." He said merrily, hanging up Damon's phone and neatly sliding it back into his pocket, patting it with a smile.

"Are you naturally brain-dead or something?" Damon asked snarkily. "Klaus can get through a barrier spell." He said as a matter of factly. Klaus was a thousand year old hybrid, with witches of his own. Damon knew a pathetic barrier spell wouldn't stop him, but he also knew Klaus couldn't do much from Chicago.

"But we'll have healed you by then." Stefan said confidently.

"Healed?" Damon hissed, chuckling like a mad-man. "I don't have a raging case of Klausydia you know." He smirked.

Stefan got in his face and growled loudly, baring his fangs. "I'm not going to have my brother siding with him!" He screamed out blindly. Amidst his brother's screams, he heard footsteps arrive in the doorway once more. He rolled his eyes, didn't they have anything better to do? Didn't Elena?

"It's my choice!" Damon yelled back. "And you're a hypocrite, you almost did!" It was a low blow, but he would get his message across one way or another. He didn't care how, he didn't care what wounds he opened, he didn't care how childish it sounded. He _would_ do it.

"To save you." Stefan reminded him in a lower voice, stepping away from him to give him his breathing space. "Which is exactly what I'm going to do."

Damon chuckled and then his face blanked, hardening with his slowly growing anger. "You can't mould me into your perfect vision of an older brother just by throwing a bitch-fit and expecting old-fashioned methods to work." He said. "And _you_." He rounded on Elena who was sandwiched between Caroline and Bonnie with a vicious glare. "You can't play with my brother's feelings and then choose me over him, thinking I'll go back to "normal", and we'll ride off into the sunset together."

"Neither of you can change me, and _none_ of you are going to!" He yelled loudly enough so Bonnie and Caroline jumped back. "Even if you could change me, how would _this_ work!?" He moved against the chains to excercise his point. "All this is doing is making me hate you much more than I already do!"

Nobody was listening, Damon felt trapped, so he tried another tactic. _Bonnie_. "How can you stand all this?" He asked her softly. "Helping _vampires_, the reason your Grams is dead? Yeah, Elena and Caroline are vampires, but nearly every single witch I've ever came across hates vampires, yet you don't." He said almost in wonder. "I really hate to tell you this, but you're only used or acknowledged when your powers are needed."

"And Caroline's nothing but a useless airhead bobbing away in the background trying to prioritize stupid human things while the supernatural is running rampant." He sneered at her. "And while we're on the subject of useless, don't get me started on Mutt, we'll be here forever."

"And speaking of forever, Elena? How's your new life suiting you?" He asked her jovially, as if they were old friends greeting each other out on the street. "No cravings yet?" He was enthralled with all the possibilities he was gathering to make sure the little princess's transition was utter Hell. "Well I can tell you right now that you won't be able to resist sinking your teeth into the first bleeding human you see." He licked his lips hungrily "You're a _monster_, no better than the rest of us." He said emotionlessly, rolling his eyes as Caroline took Elena out of the room once more. She was getting carted out of the parlour more often than the dead bodies from Damon's sorority parties. Bonnie followed, giving Damon a lasting glance

"Damon-" Stefan started, but Damon was faster.

"Don't you start with the "I'm just trying to help you" crap." He waved him off. "We both know that's a lie. You want everything around you to be perfect for Elena's transition so she won't have much trouble, but none of us got smooth rides, so why should she?" Damon asked in frustration. "What is so special about her that everyone has to fight tooth and nail to keep her safe? If it was someone else in Elena's position, they'd be left to deal with it. Caroline did."

"Elena never wanted this." Stefan said somberly.

"Newsflash!" Damon sang. "_None_ of us wanted this! You didn't, I didn't, but did we have anyone helping us? No!" He yelled.

"Damon don't bring up the past." Stefan whispered.

"Why?" Damon smirked like a Cheshire cat. "It's not my fault you can't face up to anything you've done and have to lie to make yourself seem like the perfect Saint while I'm the evil one." He spat. Stefan growled and grabbed his throat, pulling his head up as best as the chains would allow. He raised a fist, smashing into Damon's face, and he grinned as blood started dripping out of his nose. Stefan was getting more and more annoyed with his resentment, and was readying to hit him again, but footsteps at the doorway stopped him.

Both vampires turned their heads, and Damon saw Bonnie walking into the room, her Grimoire perched on both arms. Her eyes were gleaming with a sense of victory. "Stefan?" He walked over to her, craning his neck to read what was on the Grimoire's pages. "I found something that might help." She said, and Damon's grin immediately slipped from his face. "It's a spell that erases memories from a vampire's mind."

At this Damon's eyes widened, but he couldn't let them see it, see his momentary weakness. That repulsed him, being unable to remember anything about Klaus. He had too much that was too precious to him, and Stefan would no doubt want to erase every single shred of Klaus that wasn't the side that _he_ wanted Damon to know. That would mean all their steamy moments, gone, all their sweet moments, gone, nearly _everything would be gone._

This ignited a fire in him, and he was fighting against the restraints again. If worst came to worst, he would figure out a way to rip the curtain down and burn him to ashes. He would rather die than have his few memories of actual happiness taken away from him. "The Hell you're erasing anything from my mind!" He snarled venomously.

"Perfect." Stefan smiled with sick satisfaction, ignoring Damon's outburst. It wasn't just the fact that they could potentially erase his memories, it was the smug look on Stefan's face. He was right; none of this was about saving him, it was about passing himself off as the good guy in everyone else's books, and "curing" Damon of his feelings for Klaus would seal the deal and nobody would be able to trust Damon ever again.

"But, I can only do it on a full moon." Bonnie said. Damon nearly passed out with relief, and Stefan's face turned into an ugly scowl. "And it won't be here until next month, this month's full moon was yesterday." This time Stefan's eyebrows grinded together and his right eye twitched.

"Praise the Lunar Cycle!" Damon coughed happily, wishing he was able to throw his hands up in the air. It looked like "Saint Stefan's" plans were falling apart and he would have to wait another month before convincing everyone he was the nicest vampire to ever walk the Earth and Damon was the spawn of the Devil.

"Instead, I found this spell." Bonnie piped up, and Damon listened carefully. There was no sense in getting worked up if it wasn't going to do anything to permanently addle his brain, and if it was, bodies would be flying one way or another. "It's sort of a lie detector, we ask Damon questions, and this will tell us if he's lying or telling the truth by making a different colored ring around him." Bonnie explained. "Blue for the truth, red for a lie." Damon relaxed completely, now everyone would know the real truth, whether they like it or not.

"How does it work?" Stefan asked, Damon couldn't miss the excitement in his voice, but couldn't hold his pride from swelling. Now they would _have_ to believe him. Even if he could hi-jack a spell, why would he want to?

"I just inject him with this solution." Bonnie rummaged through her pocket, precariously balancing her Grimoire on one are until Stefan took it from her and placed it on the sofa. She smiled gratefully, and pulled out a needle with a murky brown liquid in it. "I made some since I knew the memory erasing spell wouldn't work."

Bonnie walked up to him, hesitating when she reached him with the needle. "Inject away Witchy-Woo." He invited, making it slightly easier for her to roll his sleeve up, moving his wrist slightly. "I can't wait to see the look on all your faces when I'm telling the truth." He gloated to Stefan, watching as Bonnie injected the potion into his arm.

Damon grunted in pain as he felt the potion whizzing through his bloodstream and pushing up into his brain. It felt like there was a large pressure on it; like a locked box being crushed. He felt dizzy and his veins were ice, but he didn't care. If it would prove he was telling the truth about Klaus and not loving Elena, he would take a wooden bullet to the groin.

"Elena! Caroline!" Stefan hollered to them, making Bonnie wince slightly. "Bonnie's found something!" Two rushes of air and a crash signalled their arrival. _Elena must still be trying to master her super-speed._ Damon thought with a grin. If she couldn't do that without crashing, he couldn't wait to see what feeding time would be like.

"Something that'll cure him?" Elena said hopefully as she and Caroline strode into the room, the blonde giving him an icy look that felt like his veins. He returned it was just as much malice, if not more.

"Again, I don't have Klausydia people!" He growled in frustration.

"It's a potion that can make people tell the truth." Bonnie elaborated. She didn't seem as keen and desperate to find out if he was telling the truth, she seemed to be acting as if this whole thing was mandatory. Exactly like when she and her Grams opened the tomb. "First, I'll ask Damon a question everyone knows, and then I'll ask him something only he knows." She said, walking a little closer to him.

"And then we can ask him anything?" Elena was nearly bouncing off the walls and her voice was reeking of awkward sub-text. She was _still_ clinging onto the belief that he loved her back, and it was enough to make Damon cringe. He had never been like that around her, he had preferred to pine in silence and alcohol, at least he kept his dignity that way.

"Yes." Bonnie nodded to Elena with a smile, making Damon roll his eyes. As usual, everything the witch did somehow revolved around Elena. Honestly, couldn't anyone but Klaus and himself think for themselves anymore? "Damon, did you turn Elena into a vampire?" Bonnie asked him.

"Yes." Damon replied, and he felt most of the pressure relent on his brain, and some warmth flood his body. He still felt icicles nipping at his nerve-endings, but if he was right, he wouldn't for much longer.

"When you went to Chicago, did you go for Elena? Or to get your brother back?" Bonnie asked him again.

"To get my brother back." Damon answered truthfully, not caring if everyone knew that he had cared for his brother back then. What ever he had felt, was gone. He wanted nothing more than to see his pathetic brother burn along with everyone else in this pathetic town. His hatred now ran so deep, Damon felt ashamed for being in the same room as him. Any chance of salvaging their relationship would just be rebuked with a great big "fuck you".

"There." Bonnie stepped backwards. "Ask away." She smiled towards Stefan and Elena. Caroline crossed her arms, glaring from the sidelines.

"Is your humanity off?" Stefan asked. Damon rolled his eyes, not wanting to answer as he had answered it more than enough times and had been ignored, but something was compelling him to open his mouth and tell the truth. It was like his brain had gone into some kind of meltdown and could only programme one thing: _Tell the truth._

"No." Damon answered. Heat surged through his body, pushing out of his very being and manifesting around him. Damon smirked triumphantly as a _blue_ ring burned momentarily around him, but long and bright enough for everyone to see. Elena looked shocked and Stefan looked like he was about to punch a window.

"Do you love Elena?" Stefan probed, and Elena looked at him, a hint of a smug smile on her face and hope glimmering in her eyes. Damon smirked, he was about to bring everything crashing down.

"No." Damon spat harshly, watching her face fall. "Not anymore, never again." He added. Elena and everyone else in the room went silent. Stefan was shaking his head with a puzzled expression on his face, while tears were slowly gathering in Elena's eyes.

"Damon..." Her voice was a broken gasp and her tears were rapidly forming, threatening to fall. Her bottom lip quivered pathetically, and it was a glorious sight to see, he would break _her_ heart for a change, and she would feel the sting of rejection just as he had countless times.

"I told you more than enough times." Damon said humourlessly, feeling the warmth materializing outside his body once more. The ring was a bright white until it shimmered a bright blue. "And here's the undeniable proof." He grinned and Elena gave a choked gasp and broke down crying. Caroline wrapped her arms around her comfortingly, shaking her head at him.

"Don't blame me, it's the potion." Damon snickered, enjoying every second of this.

"Do you love Klaus?" Stefan asked.

A hint of a smile appeared on Damon's face, and Stefan looked horrified. "Yes." Damon nodded, his face suddenly burst into a huge smile. He felt so much better saying it out loud. "Yes, yes, yes, yes, and _yes!_" He was nearly cheering now, and Stefan was looking lost once again.

The ring flared up with more intensity than it had during the previous questions, and everyone watched it rapidly change color, for some reason flickering as every color but blue or red. Even Elena stopped crying to watch; she was _not_ going to like this.

Damon sighed in relief as the ring burned a deep blue. "Told you." He said triumphantly.

"How can you love him?" Stefan was talking to him like he was a delusional patient in a mental asylum. The truth was right in front of him - slowly dissipating with every passing second - so why couldn't he just accept it? Why couldn't they all? "After everything that he's done?" He asked, sounding betrayed.

That was the last straw for Damon. "Just because you all hate him, doesn't mean I have to." He hissed. "I'm a hundred and seventy-eight, I can make my own decisions." He smiled with faux sweetness. "So me a favour and stop projecting everything I'm "supposed" to feel and think about him onto me, because I really don't care." He growled. He didn't know if it was the potion making him say that, but he didn't care. It was the truth.

Stefan tugged on his hair, grunting loudly in frustration. All three females in the room jumped, and Elena's tear-streaked face twisted from the both of them; one chained, calm and collected, and the other looking like he was going to throw a bitch fit. "Bonnie, can't you find a temporary spell or something?" He asked her, gritting his teeth.

"They wouldn't work." Bonnie shook his head, and Damon rested, enjoying the scenario that was unfolding before him; they would have to come to terms with the truth soon enough. "Damon really does love him, so everything would come back eventually, and if Klaus loves him back, he'll rip us all in half before he leaves Damon."

"Got that right." Damon chirped. "He snapped a woman's neck just for _touching me_." He gloated sadistically. "Imagine what's gonna happen to all of you..." He trailed off, watching looks of fear contort on Elena and Caroline's faces. Bonnie remained impassive, clearly cocky enough to think she could take him on, and Stefan was getting angrier and angrier by the second.

"I'm not giving up." He swore. "Klaus still could have manipulated his feelings." At this point, frustrated wasn't even a strong enough word to convey his feelings. He let out a groan and slammed his head back against the chair.

"Well ask-" Stefan interrupted Bonnie by grabbing her by the throat and lifting her up off the ground. Elena and Caroline gasped, Damon would have sworn he was on human blood, but he wasn't. It was purely his rage and frustration fusing together to make the man before him.

"I'm doing this my way Bonnie!" He yelled, dropping her on the floor. Both girls sped over to her, looking at Stefan like he had gone insane. Stefan smirked at him before he pulled the curtain open once more, bathing him in sunlight.

Damon screamed and squirmed against the chains, but he couldn't break them. Stefan was loving this, he knew it. Damon turned his head away to try and heal his face so he wouldn't burst into flames, but Stefan just grabbed his head and forced it into the sunlight. This made Damon scream harder, it was like his skin was hanging off his face.

Stefan finally let him go, and pulled the curtain shut. Damon gasped in relief, panting heavily. His throat was sore from screaming, and it was the weakest he had felt all day. His skin wasn't healing as fast as he would have liked it, and his neck was struggling to keep the weight of his head up.

"Why can't you just let me be happy?" Damon rasped out to everyone in the room. All his life he had been miserable, there were only a few times he was happy, and most of them involved Elias. Katherine hadn't been love to him, he had learned that very quickly, but Elias and Klaus were the only two people to make him happy, and now Stefan was trying to destroy that so everyone would think he was the good guy. "Why do _you_ get to decide how I live my life?" He tried to hiss, but it came out as a weak whisper.

"I'm only looking out for you." Stefan said softly, and Damon glared at him. If this was looking out for him, he didn't want to know what came next in his stupid plan. "Klaus will only kill you the minute he gets bored of you." He told him, and Damon shook his head fervently. Klaus had shown no signs of being bored of him, if anything he seemed to enjoy being with him.

"I'm surprised you think that low of me Stefan." Klaus' voice floated through the room, and Damon thought he was dreaming. He turned his head, and saw Klaus stood in the middle of the living room. The girls had scrambled up against the wall, but Stefan held his ground. Klaus wasn't looking at him though, he was looking at Damon. There seemed to be regret in his eyes, and Damon didn't know what for.

"How did you get in!?" Stefan cried. The final piece of his plan had cracked and blown away with the wind. "Bonnie put a barrier spell up." He muttered, seemingly more to himself than Klaus, shooting Bonnie a dirty look which she _didn't_ appreciate.

"She's strong, I'll give her that." Klaus smiled appraisingly, charmingly in Bonnie's direction, and then turned towards Stefan while Damon watched intently. "But I've got _covens_ of witches at my disposal, all much stronger than her." He said without the slightest hint of gloating in his voice.

"What are you doing here Klaus?" Stefan asked him.

"Isn't it obvious?" Klaus gestured towards Damon.

Caroline pushed herself away from the group against the wall, and strode over to Klaus, pulling him around to face her. Damon knew he wasn't going to like that at all. "We're not going to let you fill his head with anymore of your crap". She declared like they could keep him here anyway. Klaus could take them all on at the same time.

"Caroline, isn't it?" Klaus was scanning his brain for a name. "I was supposed to use you in the sacrifice..." His voice trailed off.

"I'm starting to wish you had." Damon quipped from where he was tied up. Right now, saving Caroline and Tyler was the second biggest mistake he had ever made, the first was falling in love with Elena.

"You're not taking him anywhere!" Stefan yelled, and Klaus merely chuckled at him.

"I'm stronger than all of you put together, and your witch's spells can't even do so much as tickle me, so stand down before this turns bloody." He advised them. Stefan growled and went to strike him, but Klaus was faster, catching his hit and throwing him against the wall so hard Damon felt the foundation of the building shaking. Caroline was next to try, but Klaus just effortlessly smacked her to the ground like he was swatting a fly.

"I should kill you all right now." Klaus growled, watching Stefan's crumpled form trying to get up. Caroline was nursing her head where Klaus had hit her. Damon knew he wasn't bluffing, he could rip them all apart in seconds. "But why would I deny Damon what he's no doubt been waiting for?" He smiled at Damon, his eyes growing angry as he saw the state Damon was in.

Elena rushed at him with a weak excuse for a punch, and Klaus grabbed her throat so hard Damon heard her bones crunching. She gasped in pain, kicking and struggling, but Klaus wasn't letting up. "Pathetic." He sneered at her. "You aren't even a day old and you're already standing up to one of the oldest and strongest in the world..." He threw her into the wall opposite, and she tumbled into the large table, splitting it in half.

Caroline was up and charging at him, but he grabbed her and spun her around, smashing her face first into the ground. He held her down as she tried to struggle underneath his weight, but she couldn't budge him. Out of the corner of his eye, Damon saw Stefan grab an old crossbow - Alaric must have left it there - from behind the liquor cabinet, and take aim at Klaus' back.

This was enough to make Damon's blood boil. With a surprising amount of strength, he ripped free of the chair and leapt over the room onto Stefan. The two of them crashed into the liquor cart, Damon on top of him. He started punching his brother anywhere he could, all his unreserved anger coming into a display on Stefan's face.

Damon was suddenly thrown through the air, and landed on his back with a thud that had him seeing stars. Stefan's bloodied face appeared above him, and Damon cried out in pain as he felt Stefan jam the stake from the crossbow inches below his heart. Bones smashed and splinters scraped against his heart.

He was rapidly deteriorating with every passing second, his senses blurring together and his limbs becoming weak. His eyes began to close as Stefan gripped the stake to jam it upwards and end him forever, but Stefan's weight was suddenly pushed off of him, and there was a large shattering of glass.

Damon gave out completely at that point, becoming encased in darkness as his eyes refused to open. Someone knelt down beside him and tugged out the stake, making him groan behind closed eyes. Two hands pulled him up into a sitting position, holding his head and it flailed and rolled helplessly, but Damon couldn't see who it was.

"Damon?" A familiar voice asked, Damon tried to open his eyes again, but he only saw a stream grey-blue eyes through the miniscule crack. It was Klaus.

"I love you." Damon murmured subconsciously, unaware if Klaus actually heard him. There was a long silence, and everything seemed like it was still, Damon could only hear his own blood pumping in his ears as he faded slowly into the darkness that was creeping over him. The pain in his chest was there but his body wasn't registering it and he started to lose his grip on reality.

As he finally succumbed to the darkness the last words he heard ever so faintly were ones he would never forget.

"I love you too, Damon."

~ooOOoo~

**(A/N) Don't worry guys, don't freak out! Damon isn't dying, he's just very weak. But we finally got an I love you from them both! I'm sorry I didn't have heads rolling, but at least Klaus showed up and they got beat around a little. Hehe... **

**Review with your thoughts, and I'll see you with the final chapter, and it's gonna get messy. Muwahahaha! :-O**


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